ABSTRACT
Significant events occur in every analyst’s life. Some of these may never directly affect the analyses we are conducting, and thus there will likely be no reason for the analyst to discuss them with patients. Others might enter our analytic work indirectly—as I will discuss in Chapter Three—because a patient has been informed by others about events in the analyst’s private life. Still others might be events that directly affect the frame of an analytic treatment, such as the analyst’s illness (which could include ongoing treatment); the illness, death, or impending death of a family member; and events that necessitate a major change in the schedule or require a flexible schedule. In the latter case, the analyst must decide how to best deal with “telling” or “not telling” her patients about what has caused, is causing, or will cause a disruption in their regular meetings.
