Idealization and psychoanalytic learning

Idealization is an intrinsic part of psychological maturation, but it is also a potential barrier to psychoanalytic learning, and must to some degree be outgrown if an analyst is to develop a natural authority and individual style. Unrecognized idealizations stifle analysts' engagement in the transferences of their patients, and so compromise the ability to freely experience and analyze them. Attention to real life and the lessons it teaches counterbalances the tendency to idealize and encourages lifelong psychoanalytic growth.