ON GRIST FOR THE MILL - EXTERNAL REALITY AS DEFENSE

The meaning of the ''grist for the mill'' metaphor has undergone a shi ft from ''analyzing everything'' to ''everything is analyzable.'' This is used as a point of departure for exploring some of the multiple, c omplicated, and often unrecognized ways reality is used defensively by analyst and analysand. The point of view presented is in the spirit o f a balancing perspective with regard to current trends in psychoanaly sis which emphasize interactions, the analyst's contribution to transf erence, reality experiences as causation of psychopathology, and the r ole of the ''real'' relationship in the mechanism of therapeutic actio n.