The Helplessness of the Analyst

‘I was thinking no such thing.’ ‘It has nothing to do with it.’ A resounding ‘no’ echoes through the consulting rooms of analysts, for days, weeks, months, and even years on end. Denial forms part of the day-to-day workings of analysis and indicates the position of the ‘I’ and its ‘paranoiac knowledge’. It goes way back. ‘Trapped in… motor impotence and nursling dependence’,[2] the small child finds in the mirror-experience, either with an actual mirror or with any other person, an alienating and illusory compensation for its helplessness.…