ABSTRACT
Analysts have not yet adequately emphasized, or even much considered, how these modes can induce in the patient feelings of being coerced and, in the analyst, feelings of being coercive. Analysands fear that that aspect of the work will be harmful to the self, while analysts view it as essentially beneficial. In this respect they follow Freud’s repeatedly implied recommendation that the analyst’s job is not so much putting an end to conflict as dispassionately putting each analysand’s ego in the best possible position to deal with its conflicts. Chief among the analyst’s tools for doing this job are insight and interpretation, especially those concerning defense. The coerciveness of interpretation shows itself when analysands take analytic interventions as, among other things, signs that their analyst is dissatisfied with the narratives they have provided. The analysand’s desire to collaborate in the work of analysis is often associated with a fantasy of submitting to coercion.
