ABSTRACT
The more the analyst can reduce the inequality between his patient and himself, and the more unobtrusive and ordinary he can remain in his patient's eyes, the better are the chances of a benign form of regression. Nowadays analysts are enjoined to interpret everything that happens in the analytic situation also, or even foremost, in terms of transference, that is, of object-relationship. It is safer if the patient can use the therapeutic situation as a substitute, if for no other reason than because it diminishes the risk of the analyst becoming a most important, omniscient, and omnipotent object. What the analyst must provide – and, if at all possible, during the regular sessions only – is sufficient time free from extrinsic temptations, stimuli, and demands, including those originating from himself. Clinical description will help the reader to understand why so many analysts have quite so many different terms to describe it.
