Narcissistic Transference: The Product of Overlapping Self and Object Fields

When years ago in the early stages of my training we were reading Spotnitz's Modern Psychoanalysis of the Schizophrenic Patient, I asked the instructor why she was “applying” modern analytic techniques to us in her process-oriented class, even though we were not schizophrenic. Today, the patients I see in my private practice, too, do not tend to be schizophrenic. On the contrary, in the world of mental health in 2020, most of the patients who seek out a psychoanalyst, in my experience, tend to be reality-oriented, self-reflective, educated, articulate, and cooperative. Yet I find it indispensable to return to the modern analytic literature and immerse myself in texts written specifically for the psychoanalytic treatment of patients suffering from psychotic mental processes. Perhaps one day somebody will write the book “Modern Psychoanalysis of the Non-Schizophrenic Patient.” For now, as an introduction to Benjamin Margolis's paper, let me present a few thoughts on why the “narcissistic transference” and the “overlapping self and object fields” are relevant to any analysis.

Among modern analytic writers, Margolis is perhaps Spotnitz's foremost explicator and elaborator. He provides clarity and detail for difficult concepts and unconscious dynamics. I like to reread