DISCUSSION: Dr. Sander M. Abend expressed his appreciation of Dr. Stein's paper and said that he felt that the section on verbal irony, rooted as it was in the analytic situation and drawn from analytic data, was the most convincing part. In discussing this section, Dr. Abend cited some clinical experiences of his own which illuminate a variety of transference meanings and countertransference pitfalls connected with ironic interchanges. He had also noted the use of irony by patients to defend against painful affects associated with profound disappointments; the painful feelings themselves, the angry responses to which they sometimes lead, or both may be modulated by irony. Dr. Abend suggested that a common element in