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During the eight years of treatment presented in this paper, specific transference/countertransference constellations were identified within which feelings induced in the analyst were used as effective therapeutic tools to resolve the patient's resistance to analytic progress. The most crucial and lengthy of these periods involved the positive and negative narcissistic transference/countertransference. The management of this very difficult phase illustrates the theory that the development, intensification, and working through of the narcissistic transference/countertransference phase is critical for the development of the capacity for object-relatedness. When treatment was prematurely disrupted, triggering a borderline response by the patient and concordant countertransference in the analyst, induced feelings were utilized to re-establish the narcissistic transference.
The eventual success of this case hinged on the analyst's use of induced feelings within the context and process of each of these transference/countertransference states.
At nineteen years of age, David decided to enter treatment on the advice of his family physician who told him that his increasingly frequent dizzy spells were a result of “nerves.” As the story of his life