Patient as therapist to the analyst

Harold Searles's thesis, from his 1975 paper 'The Patient as Therapist to His Analyst', that one of the strongest strivings people have toward each other is essentially psychotherapeutic. It begins in the first months of life and is directed first at the parents. On this view a patient becomes ill partly because this striving was thwarted or went unacknowledged. In analysis the patient tries, often unconsciously, to heal the analyst, and the analyst has to recognise and accept these efforts, because the patient's growth depends on their therapeutic capacity being received. Commentators stress that Searles meant a primary wish arising from love, not reparation for harm done.