Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
(1968)
which was the day before the meeting. This was followed by a
brisk discussion, after which I again asked whether anyone
would like to recall their own errors. At least half the persons
were now ready to present their own errors. Most analysts are
313
314 RALPH R. GREENSON
Clinical Material
he had when he lay awake, apart from his usual obsessions. They
hid his fantasies both hateful and loving concerning, above all,
his mother and me, who he believed were the bringers or the
disturbers of his sleep.
The patient began the hour by telling me that he had not
DREAM SEQUENCES AND ERRORS OF TECHNIQUE 317
taken any sleeping pills. He did not sleep and he agreed that
when he did not take the sleeping pills he was more aware of his
fantasies. He had slept from about 10 o'clock until midnight and
was more or awake from then until 6 in the morning. Then
less
day for a nap, but I didn't. I just can't sit at my desk. I did
go out and talk to some customers but all I felt was irrita-
At this point, I felt there was too much material and I did
not know which path to pursue. First, there was his resentment
of me for taking away his sleeping pills; then the dream saying
he tried using his stepfather's "sexual" hats; and now there was
the issue of a friendly captain being killed by a guard who was
supposed to have been guarding him. Actually, in retrospect, I
guard who killed the captain. I then asked the patient, "A
manufacturer of artificial food which is sent to the under-
developed countries?" I always make a point of bringing up a
bizarre issue in a dream which does not seem to fit in with the
320 RALPH R. GREEN SON
Maybe you are right, but you just don't touch me." Silence.
End of hour.
was my last hour of the day, I had time to notice
Since this
my reactions and reflections. I felt dissatisfied and disgruntled
toward the end of the hour, and after the hour. The dream and
the associations had seemed so promising that I was annoyed
with him and myself for not getting more out of the hour. I was
so eager to pursue the unconscious contents, the latent dream
thoughts, I had failed to recognize that perhaps he wanted to
provoke my anger. I only felt discontented and angry with
myself.
The next day Mr. Z. came a few minutes early. He started
the hour by saying:
Last night was just the same as the night before. I slept until
2 in the morning and then I didn't sleep at all after that. In
addition, I felt you were saying to me,
irritable. I think
yesterday, that I am a fraud. There was an irritability in
your voice. I feel that I am being jabbed hostilely not just
helpfully. You argue with me when you make an interpre-
tation. You try to degrade and to humiliate me. I know this
is not quite true. At least, now I feel it isn't true. But then,
while you were talking to me, I felt, "Who needs you. The
hell with you. Good-bye!" [Pause.]
By the way, I had a dream last night or early this
morning. I was walking outside a building. It was an odd
combination of a residence and barn and it wasn't well
maintained. It was kind of shabby. Through the window I
could hear someone talking inside. I was outside. It lasted
for several minutes. I thought to myself, "That man should
be aware he is being overheard!"
[I kept quiet and the patient associated as follows:] The
want to remind you, though, that when I did take the pills,
I was able to remember my dreams. But it is getting very
you are aware of it. There is also a part of you that recognized I
was angry with you yesterday. Many times before, you have felt
I was annoyed with you or that I had humiliated you with an
I must say that Ihave changed! I was never able to tell you
so openly how angry I felt and, also, that I felt you were
DREAM SEQUENCES AND ERRORS OF TECHNIQUE 323
think you also like it. After all, the manufacturer of the artificial
You never can tell what lies under the rocks. Yes. I do like
your wife's voice. Although it was loud it was very musical.
I also like your living room. I think it is done in good taste.
ation to that voicewas the businessman you had visited the day
before who, you felt, was hypocritical. Again, I think I see how
mixed your feelings are toward me. On the one hand, I am the
kindly, good, father figure, and then I am also the harsh,
raucous, fraudulent businessman. It seems we alternate who is
analysis. This led him to talk about his desire for a relationship
with me and how alone he really was. He then talked about his
anticipation of rejection which by now he knew was a projection
of his own hostilities, in addition to his history of having been
rejected in the past.
He cannot really visualize himself married, with a wife and
children. It is so hard for him
actually to imagine it. "I can't
imagine being accepted by a woman. I also can't imagine loving
one. No," he corrected himself, "that's not so hard. It's more that
I can't imagine a woman loving and accepting me for over a
long period of time." This then led him to talk about his mother
and the very unsatisfactory relationship he had with her. Then
he went on to his fear of doing real association his fears that I
DREAM SEQUENCES AND ERRORS OF TECHNIQUE 327
years old. This also recalls the Senegalese guard who killed when
he should have been guarding. Strange, the Negro had to make
eight or nine calls. And pays for them." (Pause.)
. . .
the patient detects them or I have pointed them out, the patient
frequently asks about their origin. I do not agree with Little
(1951) or Searles (1965) that the patient has a right to know the
sources of the analyst's lapses in behavior or other errors. I am
willing to apologize for my irrational behavior or my lack of
perceptiveness, but their sources are my business. Under such
circumstances, I always tell the patient that the analytic situa-
DREAM SEQUENCES AND ERRORS OF TECHNIQUE 331
tion is unequal. I also add that his knowing too much about my
private life would become a burden. I would not misuse my
patient as a confessor to expiate my guilt.
There is much more to be said about the detection, source,
and management of errors. I wanted to demonstrate in this
clinical study how the use of my errors, together with the help of
the patient's dreams, not only caused no harm but helped greatly
by adding fresh impetus to the working through of the analytic
process.