Abstract
In this essay, the author describes a pivotal moment early in her analysis that served to restore her sense of hope and self-reflectiveness during the crisis of her husband's cancer diagnosis and treatment. Her analyst's personal gesture at that pivotal moment took on a multiplicity of meanings as her analysis unfolded and grounds the author's discussion of the curative power of mutual influence in psychoanalysis.
Notes
Jean Wixom, Ph.D., is in private practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She is Training, Supervising, and Teaching Analyst, Michigan Psychoanalytic Council; Assistant Director, National Institute for the Psychotherapies' National Training Program in Contemporary Psychoanalysis.