Experience and Insight in the Resolution of Transferences

I AM HONORED TO PARTICIPATE in a symposium sponsored by this Institute, which has a proud tradition of independent thought, and a longstanding commitment to the study of processes taking place between patient and analyst. I have shared some of that same commitment myself since first reading Harry Stack Sullivan during graduate school. In this spirit, I shall focus today on the role of immediate experiences between patient and analyst in resolving unconscious transferences.

I shall present clinical vignettes which show that analytic patients may become conscious of a previously unconscious transference, and may make progress toward resolving this transference, without interpretation. The vignettes are not intended to minimize the importance of interpretation; I believe that precise interpretations are a crucial aspect of analytic work. Instead, the vignettes cast light on another crucial feature of analytic work. They show that actual experiences in the relationship between patient and analyst, even without interpretation, may correct pathogenic transference expectancies, and enable the patient to begin to resolve an unconscious transference. They also show how patients themselves work unconsciously to solve their psychological problems. Moreover, the vignettes give us some indication of the lawfulness of the relation between experiencing and gaining insight.

My first vignette is from the case of Ms. Y., a divorced professional woman who had had three previous analyses of 6 years, 9 years, and 3 years respectively. In addition, her behavior had been carefully observed and regularly interpreted from the cradle onward by her hovering father, a successful businessman, who kept a daily diary of his only child for several years. A typical entry from