This couple of cartoons symbolises the return of the patient to therapy and the feelings of relief and regret that both patient and therapist may feel. There is relief for the therapist that the patient is alive but a regret at the emotional work that still needs to be undertaken. There may be relief for the patient that they are still alive but also regret that they remain tormented and there is still emotional work to be done.

The nakedness of the bare patient in this cartoon symbolises infantile exposure but also the return of repressed feelings of helplessness that the patient has been struggling to deny or split off. There is in the relationship with the therapist, a transference of this regressed state towards dependency upon the therapist and this carries with it a certain burden in the counter-transference for the therapist.  

One might argue that much of the emotional distance the practitioners attempt to maintain from their patients is to defend themselves against the burden of regression and of dependency upon them by their patients.