On the Current Concept of the Transference Neurosis—Introduction

JUDGING FROM THE DISCUSSIONS of analytical case material, the concept of the transference neurosis (singular) is variously construed. Clarification of the concept seems necessary, inasmuch as it probably determines the analyst's view of the analytic process and his therapeutic techniques. The term, "transference neuroses" (plural) is not the identical concept. The latter is a nosological term, and the former an operational concept which refers to events in analysis. Freud used "Transference Neuroses" as a generic term to encompass all those psychoneuroses which were characterized by a patient's suggestibility and capacity to form a transference, to make an identification, which implied the potential to love alloplastically. In contrast were those patients who suffered from the narcissistic neuroses and who seemed to form autoplastically oriented identifications arising out of introjections which, in turn, were determined by archaic needs and a capitulation to narcissism.

Our panel is concerned with clarification of the current concept of the transference neurosis. It cannot explore the limits of definition and all the clinical phenomena which might or might not be subsumed under that title. We are concerned primarily with what it is that happens when patients participate in the psychoanalytic process. It is the operational term that is the focus of interest here.

The manifestations of transference neurosis are overlooked often enough to question whether the descriptions of the phenomena have been adequate. Perhaps it is even necessary to question whether the concept is really grounded in clinical observation. Although