Psychologist 65:98–109.

Collections of poems written by psychoanalysts raise questions: what are the similarities and differences, for example, between poetry and psycho-analysis, and what distinguishes a poem written by a psychoanalyst from poems written by others? The shared experience of the analyst and analysand is a creation unique to the particular characteristics of each person and to the present changing moment in their personal histories. The joining of a poem and a reader is also a unique mix; although the poem remains constant, the reader is not and the poet is absent. Analyst and analysand are both pres-ent, though not necessarily constant. Analyst, analysand, and reader share the experience of subjectively engaging with the voice of another. Poetry is a created product, analysis a created process. When a poem moves a reader, he or she may experience a flow of memories and associations, feel surprise at a different view of some-thing familiar, or feel confronted by something unexpected, strange, o