Chemistry and Containing: the Analyst’s Use of Unavoidable Failures

Abstract

Certain patients overwhelm the analyst’s capacity to contain both the patient and the analyst’s own unbearable feelings. Though some such failures of containing may lead fairly quickly to self-correction and others to clinical impasse, our focus is on an in-between state in which the analyst’s ability to tolerate his inevitable failures and gradually to (re)establish his containing capacities through difficult self-analytic work can lead to significant change that might not otherwise be possible. The authors argue that this internal psychological work on the analyst’s part, which may require considerable time, effort, and suffering, is an important aspect of “good enough” containing. The unique chemistry generated between patient and analyst plays an important role in both establishing and maintaining this kind of productive analytic process.