The idealization of the relationship with patients and students

This work explores the dynamics of idealization in the analytical pair. Although talking about idealization is not new, very little has been written about the analyst's contribution to the patient's idealization or his tendency to idealize the patient. The only idea that we might find ourselves idealised by our patients, or idealise them, clashes with the ideal we have of ourselves as professionals. Consequently, we tend to resist strongly the recognition of these dynamics. Their lack of elaboration often turns them into denigration when they become untenable or unmasked. I will use published and unpublished material to reflect on the co-built idealization, as manifested in Winnicott's treatment of Masud Khan and Harry Guntrip. I intend to support the universality of these dynamics, the need to bring them to awareness and to subject them to elaboration, and certainly not to accuse Winnicott.