The author attempts to understand the underpinnings of a ruminative depression that occurred in a patient after a troubled first analysis. Negative therapeutic reaction is often assumed to be the result of a patient's unconscious guilt or masochism and thus an intrapsychic phenomenon, but the author asserts that iatrogenic phenomena in the form of persistent misunderstandings and enactments that remain unanalyzed contribute to a destructive treatment experience. The analysand may relive the failed treatment again and again in his or her mind in an attempt to resolve it. The author asserts that a traumatic treatment experience can foster depressive rumination.
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CARRIE BARRON M.D.
PSYCHIATRY, PSYCHOTHERAPY AND COACHING
LICENSED IN NEW YORK, CONNECTICUT AND TEXAS
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