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In attempting to resolve the resistance of the patient to freely experience and verbalize all thoughts and feelings, the author recognized that resolution may depend on the patient forming alternative transference alliances. This may be described as splitting the transference.
The technique of allowing for a therapeutic split transference finds its roots in the theoretical concept of splitting.
When splitting occurs within the transference relationship, it is seen as resistance to allowing all thoughts and feelings to develop towards the single object of the analyst. Siding with or joining a preoedipal resistance is sometimes an effective means of resolving the resistance. This is done when the psychoanalyst agrees that a relationship with a single therapeutic agent simply may not be desirable for the patient. If the intensity of the relationship is too threatening, some patients may defend against developing a transference or may feel the need for two therapeutic agents to represent both mother and father. Others may need to split therapeutic agents into good and bad mothers, or split one analyst into separate, unconnected parts.
Psychoanalysts often work with patients who feel that they need to maintain pre-existing relationships with therapeutic agents, or who need to find additional therapeutic agents. Often the additional therapeutic agent is another analyst (see Ormont and Strean, 1978,