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The analysis of transference and resistance is one of the cornerstones of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. The patient's extraanalytic relationships are viewed as the background against which the main theme of his/her relationship to the therapist is played out. Therapists who focus exclusively on the transference miss much that is significant in the patient's life, however. This view has been more generally espoused by analysts in recent years (Blum, 1983; Greenson, 1978a; Rangell, 1979). This article attempts to explain the theoretical and clinical rationale for using integenerational work in the context of individual therapy to deal with the patient's resistance, rather than relying exclusively on the transference and countertransference interpretations. The addition of patient-parent interviews cannot be used with all patients, but may provide the basis for further study and elaboration.
The development of relationally based psychoanalytic theories, such as object relations theory and self psychology, has given a different perspective to the focus of therapy. These theories have stressed the caregiver-infant/child relationship as the basis of mental health and illness: Intrapsychic experience cannot be studied in isolation, it must be seen in the context in which it develops (Coyne and Liddle, 1992; Stolorow, 1992). Psychic structure is formed by the experience in these relationships, therefore their focus in therapy is on these relational configurations (Bacal and Newman, 1991; Mitchell, 1988). Also, family therapy has brought into sharp relief the importance of addressing context. In this modality, the therapist's focus is on the current interpersonal processes in the family and their effect on the mental health and illness of the individuals within.
As a psychodynamically oriented individual therapist and a systems-oriented family therapist strongly influenced by object relations theory, I am keenly aware of the intergenerational influences on t