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In this issue, and from time to time, Modern Psychoanalysis will present selected transcripts from the psychoanalytic sessions of psychotic patients, as well as those special techniques used experimentally by individual analysts. Psychoanalytic literature with its emphasis on theoretical stances has rarely provided the practitioner with verbatim material elucidating infantile regression, nor has it explored the effectiveness of new approaches to the resolution of resistances. The two papers to follow describe two paranoid patients, one treated by Lewis Ross between 1972-1976, the other treated by Arnold Bernstein over a decade ago. The Ross patient regressed to the pre-object phase, reporting alienation and a desire for oneness, particularly through a delusional system concerned with his body as defended against early wishes and rage. We see these themes highlighted as the conflict emerges in the unfolding narcissistic transference.
The patient's dynamics reported in the Bernstein paper show a marked similarity to those of Ross' patient. However, Dr. Bernstein concerns himself with the analyst's reactions to the patient's delusional system and candidly discusses his interventions including those he later recognized as subjective countertransference reactions.
The Editors