ABSTRACT
Sometimes I wonder. I am not asking one of those huge ontological questions, like "Is there a Purpose for me in the Overall Plan?" or "What is the Meaning of Life?" Many people ask themselves—and other people—variants of these at different stages of their development, and a few seem to find answers that satisfy them, usually in the sphere of religion. My question is localized and specific. I have spent the greater part of my waking life, since I built up a full-time psychoanalytic and therapy practice, sitting in an armchair either behind a patient on a couch, or facing a patient in another, similar, chair. The idea of the armchair traveller comes to mind; and travel we do, and not only when a patient returns from a long journey, or when we take our holidays. We enjoy the ever-new fascination of travelling deep into inner space, both ours and the patients'. The people with whom we go need a companion, and—sometimes without 24any clear idea that this is what they are doing—they ask us to go with them. Why do we offer to accompany them?
