ABSTRACT
Contemporary psychoanalytic practice widely recognizes that the analyst's non-judgmental attitude is invariably coupled with his earnest interest, compassion, and sensitivity to the analysand's developmental potentialities. Terms such as "technical neutrality" and "interpretive neutrality" emphasize one pole of this dialectic and "compassionate neutrality" and "benevolent neutrality" the other pole. Manifestations of "goodness" on the patient's part sometimes need analytic exploration and sometimes plain and simple acceptance. Such "goodness" seems to have a multi-faceted impact upon the day-to-day work of the psychoanalyst. Unlike the usual psychoanalytic tendency to decipher symbols along personal and sexual lines, anagogic interpretations elevate the concrete into spiritual. Psychoanalytic literature is replete with descriptions of phenomena like "pseudohumility", "pseudosublimation", and "pseudoforgiveness", all of which constitute aspects of "false goodness". For individuals with much childhood neglect and trauma, starting psychoanalytic treatment is a profoundly significant experience. The availability of someone empathic, reliable, non-judgemental, patient, and constant is often an entirely new experience for them.
