Critical Reflections on a Coding Scheme

We began by reviewing our method for studying the patient's experience of the relationship

with the analyst. Among the highlights of the method is the coding of allusions to the transference in associations that are not manifestly about the transference. We went on to describe a modification in our point of view that has occurred since the coding scheme was published in 1982. This change entails greater emphasis upon the value of a certain kind of participation on the part of the analyst, one which invariably includes some degree of re-enactment of neurotic patterns of relatedness. We feel that the process is frequently enriched when it includes both the interactive expression of the tendency towards enactment and its examination. We compared our viewpoint with Weiss & Sampson and the Mount Zion group who seem to promote an ideal in which the analyst does not yield at all to the pressures of the neurotic transference. We concluded with some general reflections on psychoanalytic process research. Central among these is the idea that research hypotheses and methods should continually be revised to take account of the complexity of the process that we know of as practitioners.