ABSTRACT
The analyst in the couple is demonstrating some of the important characteristics of how to keep an analysis alive and relatively secure. The form of punishment on Mariah's part indicates that it was hard for her to accept prolonged contact as well as, paradoxically, any type of separation. It is hard to believe, for a non-analyst, that a woman of Mariah's age has not sufficiently developed object constancy, but clearly that was the case. The analyst's formulation is one that if useful will lead to a new pathway and the analytic dyad will be separated by the interpretive effort. The analyst must be able to feel the anxiety, turmoil, and psychic pain the patient is experiencing and be able to communicate this in such a way that it becomes a shared analytic experience. Prolonged transference states put the analyst in a narcissistic disequilibrium.
