ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces a method which is useful in thinking about problems that arise in the course of psychoanalytic practice. We are familiar with anxieties arising in the course of treating patients and of the need to deal with these anxieties by being ourselves analysed. The vertical axis is genetic and is divided roughly into phases of sophistication. The horizontal axis relates to ‘uses’ to which the elements in the genetic axis are put. When an element in the vertical axis appears to be identical with that in the horizontal axis the confusion will disappear if it is remembered that the term in the vertical axis is intended to denote a phase in development, whereas in the horizontal axis it is intended to denote the use that is made of the element. The horizontal axis is incomplete and is accordingly divided into columns marked to indicate that the series is extensible.
