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This is another paper on the role of the parent's unconscious fantasy in causing the child's psychopathology. The parent's neurotic conflicts, continuing to press for resolution, become stirred up by some aspect of the child's development and make the parent act unrealistically or inappropriately toward the child. It is the author's opinion that intensive treatment of the parent is not always necessary to help him become aware of his participation in the child's disturbance. Often the parent can be made to realize with relatively little effort that the child is reflecting motives and impulses that are completely opposite to the ideals and values that the parent has consciously labored to produce in the child. Through this paradox the parent becomes aware that the child is acting out an unconscious opposite wish of the parent.
In the author's experience, examination of parent and child by the same therapist is useful, since this gives a better picture of the pathological relationship. The unconscious conflicts of the parent are not deeply explored. The interview is focused upon the current conflict of the parent. Practically it is not possible nor is it actually always advisable to offer analysis to the parent in order to uncover the specific conflict that produces the child's disturbance. In selected families, in which the parents have relatively stable egos, the technique advocated can be very helpful.