ABSTRACT
This chapter describes that the whole notion of analytic anonymity is fictitious. Self-evidently, neither the inevitability of the analyst's self-revealing behavior nor the derivative recognition that "analytic anonymity" is a fiction can be construed as license for his engaging in self-important chatter, self-indulgent ruminations, or intrusive diversions, no matter how tempting such digressions may be. Originally Freud, and many since him who also deemed it essential that future analysts engage in self-examination before they try to aid others in such efforts, thought of this process as "training analyses", procedures designed to familiarize candidates in firsthand fashion with methods and techniques of the endeavor. Simultaneously, they expected that in the course of a "training analysis" and subsequent periodic reanalyses the analyst would develop so profound a familiarity with his own up-to-then unconscious promptings that it would help him recognize similar unconscious tendencies in his patients.
