A Change in the Self: The Development and Transformation of an Idealizing Transference

This is a case study of Louisa A, a divorced woman in her early 40's who was in analysis for five years. She sought treatment for recurrent depressive states, insomnia, overuse of sleeping medication, and occasional kleptomania. However, her most painful problem was a love affair with an older man who could not bring himself to marry her. The paper is divided into four sections: Introduction; The Case; The Analytic Work; and Review of the Analytic Work and Discussion of the Transference. Detailed examples of daily analytic work along self psychological lines are presented. The gradual development of a deepening selfobject transference and its movement toward resolution are described.

Highlighted in the case material are several recurring transference themes. Two examples of these are: (1) An early dream is followed as an initially empty, marble chair is transformed into a comfortable chair in which patient and father-analyst, with 'enough time', sit close together reading. (2) The gradual alteration of the use of a late Beethoven quartet. A substitute for the idealized analyst, his voice, comments and presence, is described.