Unconscious Factors Common to Parents and Analysts

I propose, in this communication, to compare two relationships in which emotional growth occurs. These are the parent-child and the analyst-patient relations. The focus of attention will be on the unconscious activities of the participants and how these activities may contribute to personality growth. The primary purpose of the comparison is to arrive at one theory which will account for both forms of emotional growth.

I wish, in anticipation, to mention two implications which may arise out of the presentation, though they are unintended. First, the emphasis on the similarity between parent and analyst is not meant to deny the obvious and frequently described differences. Second, the description of similar unconscious elements is not intended to advocate that the analyst should feel and behave like a parent. It is intended rather to stimulate inquiry into what could possibly be the active ingredient in psycho-analytic therapy.

The point of my thesis and discussion will perhaps become more clear if I indicate briefly how I happened to become interested in this topic. Some years ago, the opportunity was provided me of making a diagnostic study of 54 so-called normal latency children and their mothers. A certain number of these children were found to be optimally normal, that is, emotionally and psychosexually mature. Because of this finding the following questions came to my mind: (i) Is the emotional growth or psychosexual maturation which occurred in these children quantitatively and qualitatively the same as that experienced by the patient in the analytic setting? (ii) If the answer to (i) is in the affirmative, then what is there in common between the growth-facilitating parent and the growth-facilitating analyst?

As regards (i), it would be difficult to prove or disprove conclusively that the equating of the two kinds of emotional growth is justified. One difference is that the patient is chronologically an adult with a more or less adult ego structure a