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In Dealing with Potential Impasse: Interactive Considerations, Darlene Bregman Ehrenberg encouraged exploration of the analytic relationship as an opportunity to deal with treatment impasses. To illustrate her viewpoint, Ehrenberg cited several cases from her own practice in which examination of countertransference and transference data, including collusion, coercion, and seduction, permitted analysis of material that might otherwise have gone unaddressed.
According to Ehrenberg, many patients who have been deemed unanalyzable may instead by “victims” of limited treatment techniques. She maintains that such patients may in fact be analyzable when more attention is paid to understanding the interpersonal dynamics in the analytic relationship, and when its critical interactive subtleties are deconstructed. Taking the position that analytic objectivity is untenable, Ehrenberg holds that ruptures in the relationship or long periods of unproductive work can be prevented by examination of crucial interactive issues.
Ehrenberg explained that deconstructing the interaction can only be accomplished by “being in the relationship,” not by relying on theory. Here she is referring to an understanding of the “how” and “why” of countertransference and transference manifestations and their potential exploration with the analysand. However, just as memories, dreams, and current life experiences can be used as defenses against doing the work, a focus on transference and countertransference might also unconsciously be used as a device to evade what is currently going on in the treatment. In her own work, Ehrenberg avoids this by questioning the timing of certain emergent feelings and exploring their transference implications. She also believes that a focus on analytic issues can in fact be less intrusive at times than an exploration of past memories.
Among her case examples, Ehrenberg discussed the benefits of disclosing her countertransference reactions. For example, during the course o