Discussion Following Dr. Beebe's Address

Mrs. Zabriskie: Now I would like to welcome Phyllis Meadow. She is the founder and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Center for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies and the Boston Center for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies. Formerly she was on the Board of Directors and Membership Director of NPAP, and an adjunct associate professor of Long Island University. Her publications include the Treatment of the Narcissistic Neuroses, “Drive Theory and Diagnosis in Treatment” and “The Treatment of Marital Problems” as well as many other papers. While no longer the president of NAAP, Dr. Meadow has continued to be a major inspirational and energetic force.

Dr. Meadow: I was surprised at how close we are in our views on treatment and interpretation. But I made note of some possible variances in our approach. Dr. Robbins, I thought, was describing an ideal human relationship between two adults, and certainly if we could maintain that level of contact with the patient it would be very satisfying. The good interpretation, “I don't see why you can't be an analyst,” that his analyst gave to him was a symbolic communication. It was made person to person, and when we can do this it is very satisfying.

One of the possible differences in our approach would be that the problem in pathology is the reversal of the process of ego formation. It requires a great deal of thought when working with severely regressed patients. I've found two recalcitrant resistances, which do not respond to suggestion, support, interpretation or even reflection. These are the inadequate self, undifferentiated from object in the very earliest stages of development, and the over-evaluated object in a confused object/self state. When Dr. Spotnitz was writing his papers in the late 1940s and early 1950s on insulating the ego and on maturational interpretation, there weren't many people talking about the analytic relationship in which the feelings of the analyst are as important as the feelings of the patient. In a paper