ABSTRACT
Shortly after the February 2010 IARPP conference in San Francisco, the editor of this volume approached me asking if I would be interested in contributing a chapter to the collection. What inspired his invitation was hearing me and my wife, Marcia Steinberg, being interviewed by Jeanne Wolff Bernstein on our experiences of infertility and miscarriages over two decades before. My comments in particular fell neatly into the narrative form that he was seeking for a book which would examine how very personal experiences in analysts’ lives have a shaping effect, both in terms of their theoretical epistemology as well as their praxis. Tak-ing license from this invitation, I began to associate to several life experiences. Each was profoundly informative of what I now recognize as organizing themes that have dramatically shaped my sense of psychoanalysis, both theoretically and clinically.
