Meetings of the New York Psychoanalytic Society

DISCUSSION: Dr. Leo Spiegel noted that both latent and manifest meanings of the colors had to be considered. He expressed the belief that the processes of idealization and of splitting of self- and object representations made the problem of the idealized transference especially important in interracial analysis. Dr. Charles Brenner questioned the weight placed on the two colors, noting that their significance derived from their finding their way into hallucinated images by virtue of their origins in affect-laden aspects of unconscious conflicts. He contended that the relevant aspects of the affective significance of black and white in these patients' dreams did not have to do with the colors per se, but with the current social conventions and prejudices associated with them. Dr. Charles Fisher commented on some of the statistical observations made in regard to this special series. He offered the general observations that color is used to differentiate inside and outside of body image representations and that since black and white are the only color pair with a metaphorical polarity, this metaphorical usage might account for the high incidence in Dr. Myer's material.