{"title":"An Offer I Could Refuse: Analytic Regret and Its Vicissitudes","authors":"M. Rehm","doi":"10.1080/1551806x.2022.2048612","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This paper traces my personal experience of a missed opportunity with a patient as it reverberates within me across decades. I discover that my experience is transformed, in part by the process of writing, from dissociation to guilt, then to curiosity and regret. Regret is presented as a more complex emotion than guilt in that it is less characterized by self-reproach and reflects some measure of acceptance along with disappointment and sadness. Writings of Aron, Josephs, Searles, Slochower, Winnicott, and others are employed in the development of this theme.","PeriodicalId":38115,"journal":{"name":"Psychoanalytic Perspectives","volume":"19 1","pages":"198 - 211"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2022-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Psychoanalytic Perspectives","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1551806x.2022.2048612","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"Psychology","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This paper traces my personal experience of a missed opportunity with a patient as it reverberates within me across decades. I discover that my experience is transformed, in part by the process of writing, from dissociation to guilt, then to curiosity and regret. Regret is presented as a more complex emotion than guilt in that it is less characterized by self-reproach and reflects some measure of acceptance along with disappointment and sadness. Writings of Aron, Josephs, Searles, Slochower, Winnicott, and others are employed in the development of this theme.