Case of Mrs. D.

Mrs. D. was what any psychoanalyst would call a “fine” analytic patient. She was a gifted, expressive young woman with unusual access to her inner life. Her case illustrates the use of the “good” hour to understand the analytic process. It was with this patient, who I treated rather early in my career, that I first began to observe, as best as I could, what goes on in such hours.