The term “cloistered” calls to mind Marcel Proust: both the author himself and the “captive” woman that the narrator says he keeps cloistered, obliging everyone to constantly guess the other in order to escape him. In analysis, thinking that one knows what the other is thinking has taken another form: empathy. Owen Renick has invented a game that he calls “cards on the table”, which he sees as a collaboration between analyst and patient. The question is whether this a game doesn’t permanently “cloister” both of them within the transference.

Adolescence, 2023, 41, 2, 453-462.