Rules were made to be broken - Reflections on psychoanalytic education and clinical process

We become psychoanalysts in the 2 interrelated contexts of education and clinical work. In both of these realms we contend with what Harold Bloom (1973) termed the "anxiety of influence," a set of experiences that reflects our struggles with indebtedness and creative individuation. As we develop theoretically and clinically, we must give ourselves over to influence while evolving a personal identity and a unique expressive voice. A schematic model of clinical process, one that reflects this grappling with the anxiety of influence in our relationships to our theories of technique and our patients, is presented. A case example focuses on the convergence of educational and clinical developmental processes.