You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
One is forced to distinguish “positive” transference from “negative” transference, the transference of affectionate feeling from that of hostile feeling, and to deal separately with the two varieties of the transference to the physician … Where the capacity to transfer feeling has come to be of an essentially negative order… the possibility of influence or cure ceases.1
Horney2 most valued Freud's finding that one can utilize for therapy the patients’ emotional reactions to the analyst. She broadened this discovery, underscoring the constructive aspects of the analyst's positive regard for a patient.
Demonstrating care and trust is primary in the treatment of adolescents. Adolescents entering psychotherapy often suffer from a deep sense of rejection, alienation, frustration, and hostility-whether or not they are able to express it. In accord with Horney's perspective, it is the responsibility of the analyst to help the patient become aware of constructive forces in his/her personality. Accentuating these constructive forces leads, in turn, to an enhanced capacity to explore inner conflict and to reduce alienation, idealization, and externalization. Accentuation of constructive forces demands an atmosphere of warmth and hope in therapy. To attain this ambiance requires a positive regard on the part of the analyst for the adolescent and a faith in his/her ability to become healthier. The teenager must also feel comfortable in the presence of the therapist. A major purpose of the mutual consultation is to ascertain if the soil is right for cultivating a touching relationship. The encounter must be mutually satisfactory. Every analyst has his/her own criteria for working with a patient. In the initial interview I look for the extent of psychopathology and constructive forces, most important of which are aliveness of affect, sincerity, the capacity to endure suffering, and motivation for growth.
The principles that have emerged in my work with girls are best described by th