ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a variety of maturational experiences that have been important to own efforts to become analysts following analytic training. The types of experience that were of particular value to each were different, but overlapped in important ways. The chapter tries to convey both the commonality of, and the differences between, the sorts of experience that have been most significant efforts to become analysts. It discusses several defensive measures that analysts in general, have made use of in the face of the anxiety that is inherent to the process of genuinely becoming an analyst in one's own terms. When struggling with a clinical situation in one's practice, analysts frequently turn to a trusted colleague. The analyst's self-analysis serves a contrapuntal function to the dialogue one has with a trusted consultant. Psychoanalytic treatment initiates an exploration often tentative and ambivalent of the inner life of both patient and analyst.
