Afterword

DR. STERN ADDRESSES A NUMBER of problems in his discussion of how transference becomes knowable. While he never really provides us with his definition of transference and how, for example, it differs from other unformulated experiences, he does lay the groundwork for how therapist and patient work together. He is primarily concerned with the process by which transference becomes known to the patient and analyst, and argues for the centrality of words in defining and in turn influencing the transference experience. In effect, certain reactions of the patient are addressed and designated as transference by the analyst, and until such formulations are made, they are not experienced or known as transference and hence not explored and analyzed.

In describing this process, Dr. Stern examines the process of thinking and what the necessary mental attributes are for such learning to take place. He does not see transference as a fixed phenomena "in" the patient, but as reactions by the patient that are organized by the analyst's words. He stresses that this is a process of selection, and like others before him, points out that this is where the particular analyst and patient interaction becomes significant in how one and not another transference formulation is chosen. It is the possibility of alternative meanings that ultimately helps to dislodge the patient's imbeddedness and thus expand the patient's awareness.