On Grist for the Mill: External Reality as Defense

Abstract

The meaning of the "grist for the mill" metaphor has undergone a shift from "analyzing everything" to "everything is analyzable." This is used as a point of departure for exploring some of the multiple, complicated, and often unrecognized ways reality is used defensively by analyst and analysand. The point of view presented is in the spirit of a balancing perspective with regard to current trends in psychoanalysis which emphasize interactions, the analyst's contribution to transference, reality experiences as causation of psychopathology, and the role of the "real" relationship in the mechanism of therapeutic action.