J L Bachant | PubMed Health

PubMed1997

Transference: co-constructed or brought to the interaction?

Contemporary understandings of transference diverge around the issue of whether transference is co-constructed by both parties to the analytic interaction or brought to it by each participant. Examining the evolution of the concept of transference distills some of the issues inherent in this controversy. It is suggested that each of these conceptualizations contributes something essential to the development of a broader picture of the way transference functions in the clinical setting. If transference is viewed as a process operating along a continuum of repression, both co-construction of the interaction and the primitive wishes, fears, and fantasies brought to the interaction can be parsimoniously accounted for. Adaptive and archaic transference activity are distinguished, and the two dimensions of transference, dynamically interconnected, are shown to be essential aspects of analytic understanding.

Fantasy↗

PubMed1996

Free association and analytic neutrality: the basic structure of the psychoanalytic situation.

This paper re-examines within a contemporary context an essential foundation of classical technique, the psychoanalytic situation. Defined in terms of basic elements of psychoanalytic relatedness which make possible the most profound exploration of human motivation, its core structure is viewed as an extraordinary interpersonal arrangement anchored by two clearly differentiated yet complimentary ways of relating: free-association and analytic neutrality. The patient's role, organized by the prerequisites of expressive freedom, is counter posed with the psychoanalyst's, which is structured to empower listening and understanding. Elaborating the parameters of this unique relationship, the authors emphasize the synergic effects of each participants' activity in creating a vehicle for destabilizing neurotic equilibrium. An extensive discussion of analytic neutrality, conceived as guiding ideal that informs all the analyst's attitudes and actions in the exploration of psychic reality, is presented. Specifically, the authors distinguish three essential dimensions which bear upon the interactive process: neutrality with regard to conflict, neutrality with regard to sequence, and neutrality with regard to transference. In contrast to the rigid constraint on human responsiveness often caricatured in the literature, this vision of technical neutrality establishes its vital contribution to the integrity, depth, and tone of any analytic process that unfolds.

Countertransference↗