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The theme of the opening phase of treatment has rich associations and raises challenging questions. Historically, analysts recall Anna Freud's (1926) picture of the contrasting attitudes of adult and child at the beginning of treatment. Hoffer (1935) described the unfolding work in the introductory phase of a child analysis and discussed some of the boundary marks of this phase. The modifications in Anna Freud's thinking about the technique of a preparatory period which produce in the child “the missing willingness and readiness” (p. 5), are well known. They stemmed from her full exporation of defense mechanisms and their relationship to the affects disturbing to the ego. Ways for the analyst to meet the resistances of the opening phase, by approaching warded off affects through the recognition of anxiety, have been discussed and illustrated by Anna Freud (, ), Berta Bornstein (1945, ), and Frankl and Hellman (1962).
While techniques have changed, the analyst's attention in the opening phase is still directed towards the areas identified in Anna Freud's first lecture (1926). These include the child's insight into his problems and his ability to turn the decision for analysis from one taken by others into his own. It is still relevant for the child analyst to trace the steps leading to the decision and to study the dynamic and economic changes in the patient which signal the end of the opening phase. We may now say that this ability makes the “treatment or working alliance” possible while recognizing that this alliance will undergo many vicissitudes (Novick, 1970). It is meaningful for the analyst to trace the steps leading to greater autonomy in the patient as well as to study the dynamic and economic changes which signal the end of the opening phase.
In this paper I shall suggest that particular forms of interpretation predominate in the opening phase, paving the way for a different form at its close. The special features of work with parents during this phase will