Some notes on the postanalytic phase

A discussion of "Postanalytic Encounters," by Daniel Borenstein, M.D., and Robert Fintzy, M.D. Borenstein and Fintzy's paper deals with a phase of treatment which continues after the analysis and which has been underplayed in the literature. Only one specific postanalytic situation is gone into here, adventitious "encounters" between the former patient and the analyst. The authors emphasize especially an inappropriate continuation of "the analytic attitude" under these conditions and describe the detrimental effects on the patient. I have pointed out previously (1966) that this is only one of two polar errors, the other being a sudden excessive and unexpected intimacy by the analyst with its own train of attendant complications. The reasons underlying both extreme attitudes are discussed. The points made by Borenstein and Fintzy are well taken, although the clinical data and evidence upon which they rest appear limited in scope and depth. The valid lessons and admonitions made by the authors can be expanded and deepened from more cogent and penetrating clinical material. Analytic clinicians have such opportunities to encompass these and other experiences subsequent to the original analysis during postanalytic periods of analysis or psychotherapy.