ABSTRACT
The sadomasochistic constellation in which Kevin takes pleasure in submission and rebellion, challenging others and inflicting punishment on himself, lost some of its impact when Kevin was encouraged to develop what Novick interestingly calls “emotional muscle”. The concept of the father’s pleasure in both its subjective and objective senses becomes the nucleus around which Kevin maintains the ties to his parents, the emotions that go with them, the symptomatic satisfactions that Kevin obtains from them, and the conflicts that take shape. The infantile sexual theory that underpins the sorrows of late adolescence is expressed in the feeling that the previous generation did not do its job well and now will do better. The author agrees with Dr Novick that the practice of analytic treatment at a distance is an area of exponential growth in our work as analysts. Looking beyond the current controversies concerning distance analysis, especially as to whether it is a legitimate way of training candidates.
