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(1999). Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 35:617-628

The Un-Consciousing of Awareness in Psychoanalytic Therapy

Warren Wilner, Ph.D.

ONE DAY, as I was dashing through a subway turnstile, only to see the train I was trying to catch leave the station, an elderly subway employee said to me, “well, you missed this train, but you're in time for the next one.” I realized much later that this anonymous sage of the underground had conveyed a powerful message, one I kept getting only in dribs and drabs, until it finally clicked with some things I was thinking about psychoanalysis.

This man brought into focus the idea that there is always something going on in analysis which is obscured by our concern to connect with some train of thought, or to catch some meaning, and by our worry that we will not become aware of something in a timely manner. Feeling bothered when these connections are not made, or when we fail to sense something that is later revealed to us as having been present earlier, further interferes with our ability to get in touch with this dimension of analytic ongoingness. Thus, when we actively try

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