Forgotten Histories: when the blue sky clouds over, history can provide a useful perspective

This talk will cover some of the complications that can arise during the analyst’s life event we know as ‘retirement’, which can involve several events and take place over a number of years. Unexpectedly strong feelings can appear in the analyst: concerns about age-related health issues or any other factors, possibly leading to the need to establish an active exchange with one’s professional trustees. We are used to working with separation anxiety: addressing the end of the session or of the week, before a break, particularly before the end of an analysis and initially this can be contained and interpreted from within the countertransference. But when the ending of the analysis is specifically due to the analyst’s retirement, more difficult, painful feelings may emerge. It is the ending of several analyses, the ending of an extensive practice, and these details are known only to the analyst and not shared with each patient. A perfect storm of personal preoccupations can emerge for the analyst, some of which Anne Zachary can describe. ‘Blue sky’ is intense yet sensitive to sudden change, and this is illustrated in the countertransference. To guide the analyst through the storm, powerful theories and attention to rediscovered professional events can help contain the anxiety, not turned to systematically but remembered and researched again during the self-analysis, which may come to the rescue. Anne Zachary welcomes personal reflections and preoccupations from the audience during the discussion.