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In tonight's presentation, Ellman discussed Freud's concepts of transference, evenly hovering attention and free association, and tried to show their relevance to contemporary psychoanalysis and, in particular, the issue of analytic enactments. Ellman believes the recent literary focus on the area of enactment is in part due to a growing awareness of how difficult it is for the analyst to maintain a narcissistic equilibrium when confronted with intense transference-countertransference interactions. In addition, Ellman contends that many theoretical perspectives have characteristic ways of deflecting transference reactions, while enabling enactments to continue outside of the analytic process.
Ellman began by summarizing what he believed to be Freud's most complete vision of how to utilize the transference in the analytic situation. According to Ellman, Freud did not believe that transference could be interpreted before an attachment was made to the person of the analyst, feeling that the patient could not take in an interpretation before a transference love relationship was established. Initially viewing transference as a type of resistance, Freud came to also see it as an instrument through which “a patient arrives at a sense of conviction of the validity of the connections which have been construed during the analysis.” Freud goes on to say that dealing with the transference “happens to be by far the hardest part of the whole analytic task.” Ellman continues by expounding upon issues found in Freud's technique papers by incorporating ideas of Gill, Brenner, Kohut, Greenberg, and Winnicott. By doing this, he is both changing how we view analytic technique and is widening the scope of “analyzable” patients.
While Ellman specifically addresses work with patients diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorders, much of what he says can also be applied to patients with other character disorders who are classically thought to be beyond the scope of analytic treatment. I