Meetings of the Psychoanalytic Association of New York

DISCUSSION: Dr. Martin Blum echoed the classical analyst's questioning whether the new self psychology is the "wave of the future" and cautioned against the reductionism, scholasticism, and schisms which have periodically plagued psychoanalysis. Dr. Blum implied, however, that traditionalists may be similarly culpable, especially to the extent that they concentrate on theory to the exclusion of practice. There is merit in Kohut, particularly the Kohut of the 1965 Freud Anniversary Lecture, which was an extension of Maxwell Gitelson's paper, "The Curative Factors in Psychoanalysis." Gitelson had concentrated on the first phase of analysis, before the emergence of the working alliance and the transference neurosis proper. This was characterized by a "beginning ego change" resulting from identification with the analyst and the establishment of those dyadic conditions under which narcissism can give way to object love. Rapport, like empathy, is crucial during this initial period. Dr. Blum noted that such a concept contrasts with Dr. Charles Brenner's positing of a single attitude, the interpretive stance, as predominating throughout treatment. Instead, it asserts that transference is itself a developmental milestone, easily jeopardized by insensitive, premature interpretation or aloofness. As far back as Abraham it was recognized that narcissistic patients must be "gotten past" the "first phase of analysis." Kohut's