The Nature of the Transactions that Occur in Other than Classical Analysis

The nature of the therapeutic transactions that take place when the analyst has decided to work in other than a classical manner is discussed. Clinical material reported by Kohut describing his two analyses with Mr Z and by Guntrip revealing his own analytic experiences with Fairbairn and with Winnicott are used to suggest what kind of modifications of classical techniques are essential for achieving therapeutic results. I have developed further an earlier study of my own as a frame-of-reference for delineating the essence of these modifications. Someone for whom a classical type of analysis is not feasible has not been helped in his childhood to account for what he is experiencing and to ascertain what is likely to result if he expresses himself. He will lack a sense of being responsible for feeling of desire and anger and will feel 'totally responsible' for any indications of rejection by or injury to other people. He will not be capable of making the kind of discriminations necessary to appreciate new contexts causally linking the events of desire and anger with antecedent and subsequent events. He also will not be able intentionally to elaborate the language which would help him understand his archaic feelings of desire and anger. Before this can occur, he will need an acknowledgement by the analyst that he is not all at fault for the distressing affective experiences he had been left all alone with. He also will require encouragement by the analyst to discover what realistically may occur when he expresses his desire and his anger.