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In a well-established object relationship, many factors operate. In this paper, the mutually adaptive character of certain relationships will be stressed. Mittelmann (16) studied the psycho-dynamic features found in intimate ties and demonstrated the complementary qualities of the neuroses of the partners studied. Oberndorf (18) previously described such complementation in terms of both pregenital and oedipal orientations.
The above studies, as well as those of Hartmann (10), uncovered psycho-analytic principles that not only apply to the person who was studied microscopically, so to speak, by the psycho-analytic method, but that also extend our understanding to the interaction of two persons; i.e., to various transactional psychological relationships.
The nature of the psycho-analytic patient's intimate ties may have significance for the therapist if he is able to determine something about the persons with whom the ties exist. That is, understanding of the psychic structure or the psychopathology of the patient's wife or husband, close friends, and other intimate associates provide a wider base for study of the patient's psychic state and a wider scan of his emotional horizon. Psycho-analytic understanding, although still chiefly focused on the patient, would be extended into the environment and thereby serve to highlight the vicissitudes the patient has to face in his current adjustments.
The question can be briefly raised whether emotionally meaningful relationships can be considered psychically 'symbiotic', a term that is now found fairly frequently in the psychiatric and psycho-analytic literature. DeBary's (7) original use of the word 'symbiosis' to mean simply mutual dependence has been extended to the well-defined concept (as expounded by Benedek (4) and Mahler (15) as well as others) of the biologically significant relationship of the mother-child unit. In this relationship, the child's survival and psychological development are at stake, as also are im