ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the central role masochism plays in abandonment neurosis and its many nuances. The symptomatology of abandonment neurosis reveals that the crux of abandonic conflict resides not in the unconscious, but in the ego. Abandonment neurosis could also be called the neurosis absolute. The problem of analyst infallibility, where the analysand sees the therapist as physically and psychically flawless, is felt with greater acuity by the abandonic than in the other forms of neurosis. The onset of healing is one of the most critical phases, if not the most critical phase, in the course of an abandonic analysis. In the treatment of abandonment neurosis, the analyst can come across certain symptoms which may be interpreted in two different ways, depending on whether the prevailing point of view is strictly and classically Freudian or whether it follows the tenets of abandonment neurosis.
