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In this book, Joseph Schachter sets out to do away with one of the few terms that almost all analysts find useful, even if they define it differently—transference. He notes that for Freud the idea of transference referred to: (a) inappropriate reactions towards the analyst and (b) an etiological theory related to childhood sexuality and trauma. The author devotes a major portion of his book to discounting the etiological theory.
Schachter brings out many arguments to show that, short of the sort of experimental study that would be impossible to perform, Freud's etiological theory cannot be proved. He says that it is impossible to separate out constitutional, temperamental factors from environmental ones as causes of transference reactions. He suggests that Freud came up with his theory of past sexual trauma as the cause of transference to defend against current sexual conflicts of his own. He also brings in chaos theory to argue that both human development and the analytic situation are unstable dynamic systems, and thus not amenable to predictions or formulations about causation.
This book explores a number of very important issues in analysis, especially methodology and evidence, as well as the theory of transference. Unfortunately, Schachter explores them very poorly. There are problems with this book at many levels—in fact, so many problems that space is inadequate to list them all, much less describe them in detail. I will have to be brief.
To begin, Schachter's method of argumentation is superficial: He brings up a point he wishes to make, quotes a few authors who express the same view, then moves on to his next point. There is rarely any detailed consideration of complex topics, and never, until the last few chapters, any clinical evidence. Instead, Schachter employs the shotgun approach, hoping to bring down the edifice of psychoanalytic transference theory by firing at the theory with negative statements and brief supportive quotes from other authors. Interest