Tuesday, December 9, 2014

The Accidents of Psychoanalysis - NYTimes.com

In the aftermath of what we shrinks call "August" — a euphemism for the acute clinical moments that our patients experience while we're away for the standard three to five weeks of vacation — I found myself reflecting on a series of physical accidents that befell too many of my patients during my break not to note.

If two patients fall down stairs, another is involved in a pedestrian accident, one more falls off her bike and yet another suffers severe burns, what am I to make of this? Was it coincidence? Or were their mishaps somehow a continuation of their work with me in analysis?

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