ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on the threads which emerged from the patients’ stories. It demonstrates how patients have constructed meaning from their experiences and, through doing so, have contributed to a fuller understanding of the analytic process. When a patient declares that an analysis was a failure, however, the analyst must be careful to avoid defensiveness in trying to understand why the patient retreated from further analysis, unsatisfied. Patients undertake an analysis for multiple reasons. Some stated these clearly at the beginning; for example, wishing to work with personal, relationship, or work failures; other reasons are not so conscious, but emerge through the analytic process. The powerful transference-countertransference relationship between patient and analyst has formed the larger part of patients’ reflections on their experiences. The comment about interpretative technique and congruence with the patients’ communications was made by several patients.
