ABSTRACT
A provocative but serious and hitherto unexplored technical possibility pertains to the analyst’s letting the patient know that he refuses to listen to the patient’s material. An especially tricky situation is when a patient refuses to give identifying information about him or herself but insists upon talking about the problems needing help. The indication for refusing to listen is when the patient is repeating something ad nauseam. The analyst explicitly refuses to listen to surface material and insists upon going deeper. Another indication for refusing to listen is when the patient seems to be obtaining too much instinctual gratification by talking. The analyst listens to the material offered by the patient again and again, each time with a slightly different vantage point and each time grasping a fresh nuance of what the patient is trying to convey. One might go on listening to endless repetitions or instinctualised discourse as a form of masochistic submission to the patient.
