Psychoanalysis is dialectical.
What the patient does for the therapist, the therapist returns, through his own initiative. The same is true for the therapist's contribution. In this intricate choreography where patient and therapist alternately or simultaneously take responsibility for restoring the integrity of the therapy, understanding is only part of the process. The tension caused by rifts in the therapy needs to be tolerated and contained, ultimately by the therapist. His or her whole-hearted willingness to understand the meaning and work through the consequences of these disjunctions follows.