A central tenet of both classical and Kleinian analysis is that the treater must remain fairly anonymous to her patient—she does not answer questions about herself, have pictures of her family on the wall, tell you where she went to school or where she is going on vacation. Indeed, you don’t even see your analyst during your sessions—how she looks as she reacts to you and what you are saying. You’re on the couch. There is a simple reason for this: If the analyst is a so-called blank slate, the traits the patient attributes to her come primarily from the patient rather than the analyst. That’s
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