SAFETY, DANGER, AND THE ANALYSTS AUTHORITY

The concepts of safety and danger as they pertain to the psychoanalyti c situation are examined, with a special interest in casting aside fam iliar unquestioned presumptions about the therapeutic effects of the a nalyst and the setting as safe and therefore facilitating of self-disc losure, insight, and change. The merit of viewing the situation as in itself neither safe nor dangerous is argued, and problems are noted in the uncritical acceptance of the illusion of safety and attempts to u se it for therapeutic purposes. Such an illusion denies the psychologi cal and biological vulnerability of all human beings, especially in re lation to aggression. In the clinical setting, working from an unexami ned presumption of safety interferes with full transference expression and the analysis of aggression, often in the service of sparing the a nalyst from fully experiencing the analysand's adult aggressive potent ial. Contemporary interest in the analyst's authority, particularly ef forts to undo it, can profitably be viewed as helping to maintain an i llusion of safety during treatment in order to avoid the real dangers that are experienced as present and that are therefore available for e xploration and mastery.