The uniqueness of the patient-analyst pair: approaches for elucidating the analyst's role

This paper describes ways in which patient-analyst interactions result in a unique creation in each psychoanalytic endeavour. The particular character of the analyst and analysand overlap in a manner that potentially influences both the depth and the limits of the analysis. Analysts, therefore, need to be alert to their impact on the analytic process. Three approaches for elucidating the analyst's role and its effect on the patient are described. Case examples illustrate the impeding effect of unrecognised similarities between patients and analysts. Once the analysts became aware of these similarities, there was a change in their behaviour, resulting in a deepening and expanding of the patients' analytic experiences.