Session-by-session report of low frequency Kleinian psychoanalysis: establishing analytic contact with a borderline...

There is virtually no literature regarding the psychoanalytic treatment of patients with less than three times a week frequency other than those articles that include the word psychotherapy in the title. Even though more lenient positions are taken in public forums and between colleagues, there is still a vast political distance between what is considered kosher psychoanalysis and "that other procedure." The leading publication for psychoanalysis worldwide, the International Journal of Psychoanalysis, now includes articles on psychoanalytic psychotherapy. It is remarkable, but never mentioned, to notice how the cases and clinical process written about are usually indistinguishable from the cases and clinical process in all the other articles concerning psychoanalysis. This author presents material based in the belief that if a consistent pattern of transference analysis has taken place along with regular exploration of phantasy and defense, then, regardless of frequency, analytic contact can take place. This treatment is then regarded as psychoanalysis. In other words, psychoanalysis becomes defined by clinical process rather than external criteria. This article examines the establishment of analytic contact with a borderline patient within a twice-a-week, on-the-couch, Kleinian framework.