The analyst’s anticipatory fantasies: Aid and obstacle to the patient’s self-integration

We are often feeling parts of our patients that they cannot feel themselves. Sometimes, this information is helpful when conveyed to a patient; sometimes, it is even welcome news from an outsider who is able to feel and see things that the patient cannot see alone. Patients are also sometimes predisposed to experience our externality (e.g., Balint, 1968; Benjamin, 2004; Bromberg, 1998; Winnicott, 1969) as a form of control and forced accommodation to our language and way of seeing.