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By Merton M. Gill. New York: International Universities Press. 1982. Pp. 229.
Analysis of Transference. Volume II. By Merton M. Gill & Irwin Z. Hoffman. New York: International Universities Press. 1982. Pp. 193.
Two quotes from Volume I will introduce the main theses: 'The model I espouse is one in which the analysis of the transference is the analysis of the neurosis and in which the therapeutic effect is primarily the result of the combined cognitive and experiential accompaniments—both repetitive and new—of the examination of the transference. It is not one in which the analysis of the transference is ancillary to the analysis of the neurosis and in which the therapeutic effect is primarily the result of the cognitive recovery of the past' (p. 127). 'Transference resistances, even if not signaling a transference neurosis, are present all the time. Whatever one's conclusion on whether they should always be interpreted, my point is that they are always present and hence potentially always interpretable' (p. 73).
Gill, like Freud, Strachey, Bird, Stone, and others, sees the transference interpretations as uniquely mutative. He takes issue with Freud, however, for putting too much emphasis on genetic reconstructions in his case reports, while advocating the centrality of the transference neurosis in his writings on theory and technique.
He gives a clear historical account of the development of analytic thought on transference and transference neurosis and accurately delineates the differences between the two. The differences between transference reactions and character are less evident.
To bring about the full flowering of the transference neurosis, Gill divides the interpretations of resistances into 2 categories: (a) the resistances to the awareness of the transference; (b) the resistances to the resolution of the transference neurosis. The former present