ABSTRACT
In treatment, patients can develop an idealizing tie to the analyst that serves adaptive, developmental, and defensive functions. It is challenging for the analyst to understand these functions and to know how to respond in an attuned and appropriate way at different points in the treatment. Below, I am going to present a case where I was presented with this challenge. This patient may be seen as pursuing some mild version of the “reparative quest in her relationship to me and in what she wanted from the treatment.”
