ABSTRACT
A crucial element of provocative outrageousness is the opportunity it affords the individual to see Masud Khan's making an impression upon another. His outrageousness, however, was also the leading edge of a far deeper self-destructiveness. In 1968, three years before his death, D. W. Winnicott spoke before a closed meeting of the 1952 Club on "The Transmission of Technique". According to the notes of one participant, Winnicott remarked, "It is not a very great thing to fail in an analysis. The awful thing is to go on with an analysis after it has failed". Winnicott must have known that awful feeling in his analysis of Khan, perhaps even realizing early on that he could never succeed. He did this because of his wry appreciation of the human predicament, his dedication to the "three percent that was creative and vital", and because he never imagined curing himself from taking responsibility for Masud's uncure.
