“We are a group of analysts working in the greater context of the analytic world, but as a group, we have a profound analytic group process that’s evolved and in profoundly successful ways – we’ve become a group that contains one another, and deals with great difficulties. Mel has given a taste of where we…

“In addition to the easy convenience of bathing two children together, or three children together, there are other motivations of bathing them together. Parents are less aware that there is an excitement in seeing the children naked – although convenience is what’s stated first, I think other things do go into it. Through development reactions…

“This came from an experience with a patient. It was early in my analytic training, and I was working with a supervisor who I really admired, and worked with her for a number of years. She was post-Kleinian, and was great at interpretation, formulation, and she was really helpful with just starting to guide me…

“[A couple state of mind] is the capacity to be subjectively involved with both individuals, but then importantly, to be able to step back, find a third position, and try to understand what the couple are creating together. Although it’s kind of obvious in a way, because surely, that’s what a couple therapist is doing,…

“To come back to this idea of ‘groaning’ – I really like it because I think it’s a good description of the work we do, but particularly because it refers to Antonio Ferro’s concept of the absorbency of the frame, which I think is another way of referring to it, that the frame can take a…

“The theme that I found with IPSO [International Psychoanalytical Studies Organization] was that there was a common theme [in psychoanalytic training].  There was an initial phase full of terror and excitement, and then a middle phase of maybe some lethargy or apathy or disillusionment. In that middle phase, many candidates found IPSO, or IPSO found them,…

“The original papers that were written about the analyst’s unconscious being attuned to the patient’s unconscious by Hyman and Racker, in both cases they talk about this phenomenon. But both of them utter a caution, which is that one always has to take into account one’s own ‘mishegas’.  Essentially, what they’re saying is, the unconscious…

“I see the importance being in the process of working with someone to write a case report such that the case report asks the reader to open up and deepen their awareness, both of the analysis, but by definition, also of themself. One is always asked, What does this mean? Go deeper, be more open….

“I don’t know what to do about this because we do have to use clinical material. It’s the best tried and true method in which to inculcate analytic thinking in our students and supervises. On the other hand, we are so indebted to our patients and their trust in us and our responsibilities as ethical…

“During the whole course of your [psychoanalytic] training, you are laying on the couch and have your personal analysis and beforehand you don’t know where it will lead you. You start to discover corners of your unconscious psyche which you don’t want, which you are not so eager to explore. This accompanies you during the…