THE ANALYST'S RELOCATION: ANALYSIS TERMINABLE,INTERMINABLE, AND DISLOCATED

The analyst's relocation is relatively neglected in the literature. Yet relocation is profoundly unsettling, striking at the psychoanalytic contract in a way that illness or even severe countertransference disturbances do not, and this unsettling aspect of resettling can disturb analytic functioning. The few previous papers about relocation focus on how to best understand and manage “reality” intrusions in terms of the nature and status of the transference relationship. In this paper, an engagement with object relational ideas is the prism through which to examine the dislocations of relocation and the potential disruptions of thinking caused by the vicissitudes of moving.