ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author believes that the holding environment of the clinical situation allows for the tolerance and processing of regret. A more differentiated form of anger and love opened with regret. Although a clinician often sees the capacity for regret following from primitive aggression made conscious, it works the other way around as well. When Sharon married her second husband, which occurred in her treatment, she focused all her energies and interest on choosing a larger and more elegant suburban home, and then on decorating, cleaning, and keeping this new home neat. With play and creativity in Sharon's analysis came her new success in her creative work. Sharon maintained a schizoid compromise in treatment. As the woman chattered on, Sharon began yelling at herself, inside her head, that she should be able to understand the woman. She yelled at herself that she should understand Italian, and should understand all that the woman was saying at the fast pace.
