ABSTRACT
While most analysts are aware of the attractions and pleasures of our profession, we also like to characterize ourselves as members of an impossible profession, taking pride in the idea that we do something that is extraordinarily difficult. Clearly, we don’t think it is impossible, but it is worthwhile attempting to catalogue some of the realistic difficulties of analytic work, because there is a group of analysts that do not tolerate well the long-term strains of doing analysis, losing their zest, their skill and their confidence over the course of their career – who ‘burn out.’ I shall try to catalogue some of the sources of difficulty in analytic work, along with their serious consequences for a group of analysts, and to suggest some remedies. I shall largely confine this discussion to personal issues, rather than the social and professional problems that are inimical to pleasure in the work.
