ABSTRACT
Patient and analyst are conceptualized as co-participants in the analytic inquiry, and the patient is encouraged to observe and inquire about countertransference with the same freedom with which analysts comment on and inquire about transference. In a democratic and anti-hierarchical spirit reminiscent of both Sullivan and Searles, Benjamin Wolstein (1977) argued for the existence of what he called psychic symmetry in the analytic encounter. Wolstein was among the earliest to recognize that patients can detect even the most subtle and nonverbal of the analyst's moods or attitudes. He took the position that symmetry in the status and power relations of the analytic relationship was a factor in the healing potential of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Theories of psychopathology, metapsychology, and technique encourage analysts and patients to diverge from what Wolstein idealizes as direct relatedness, by which he means the willingness of each co-participant to communicate his or her experience of the other in an uninhibited manner.
