ABSTRACT
The concrete situation that brings these questions into focus and that raises more general questions revolves around how we as analysts adapted both personally and in the context of clinical interaction, after September 11 and at the time of the first anniversary. When Sullivan introduced the concept of participant observation analyst's inherent subjectivity to the body of analytic literature, it opened the door to the full examination of both parties in the dyad and to the inevitability of mutual influence. The events surrounding the national trauma of September 11 had the unique property of dramatically impacting patients and analysts simultaneously, especially in New York City. This was a powerful external event that affected virtually everyone and that was shared rather equally by both parties in each analytic couple. Analyst's personal qualities effect patients, external factors and stressors in analyst's lives effect the way patients are engaged, analyst's theoretical predilections effect the way patients are both engaged and understood.
