The Mutuality of Change and Personal Growth in Analytic Relations: Commentary on Paper by Lauren Levine

Abstract

This discussion explores the ways in which the multiple roles that analysts assume in their training years and beyond (analyst, patient, supervisor, supervisee, student, and teacher) are complementary and mutually enhancing. I suggest that our patients' personal growth, expanded and enhanced sense of self, and healing of old wounds are integrally linked to our own. Our work with our patients informs our personal analytic work, which expands our work with patients, deepening our capacity for knowing ourselves and others, in a continuous mutually enriching loop of psychoanalytic exploration.