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IN OUR PRELIMINARY MEETING, Dr. Calef suggested that I address my comments to the current status of the transference neurosis in child analysis. But, at least for me, there is an obstacle to proceeding directly to this task, an obstacle inherent in the fact that adult analysis is the model with which the changing methods and techniques of child analysis have been compared and contrasted. Immediately, then, comes the question: What precisely do we mean when we speak of transference neurosis? Once defined, how general is its occurrence, and how essential a tool is it in determining the final therapeutic outcome?
Although the term, transference neurosis, is one of our heritages, it is, I think, significant that Freud's references to it are relatively sparse and extend only to the twenties. This is in contrast to his repeated and continuing statements with respect to transference, which endure down through his final Outline(1940). Further, he employed the term transference neurosis in relation to the obsessional neuroses, hysterias, and anxiety hysterias. In this context, the word "symptom," of course, carried its initial meaning of a substitute gratification arrived at through a compromise formation. With the exception of his last mention of the term in "Beyond the Pleasure Principle"1(Freud, 1920), in one way or another, he tended to include explicitly in his definitions