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January 11, 1993. TRANSFERENCE AS A COMPROMISE DEFENSE. Jacob A. Arlow, M.D.
Analysis of the transference remains the central technical imperative of psychoanalysis. Dr. Arlow noted, however, that Freud's conceptualization (in the Introductory Lectures) of the transference neurosis, wherein "the whole of the [patient's] illness's new production is concentrated upon a single point—his relation to the doctor," is extreme by current standards. Although Freud abandoned the term "transference neurosis" after 1922, the tradition of exclusively transference-oriented technique which he established remains influential. Related to this is the assumption that only transference interpretations are mutative. According to Dr. Arlow, these views concerning the primacy of transference interpretation remained relatively unchallenged until Dr. Harold P. Blum's 1983 paper, "The Position and Value of Extratransference Interpretation."
Dr. Arlow noted that his own attention had been drawn to this issue when he observed, in consultation, supervision, and clinical seminars, that at times analysts' exclusive concentration on transference created an "artificial inhumanity" and led to neglect of the material. As he put it, "They are not listening to the material; they are listening for material, transference material." Dr. Arlow stated that the catalyst for his decision to write the current paper came at a workshop at an Annual Meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association, where he observed that the analyst/presenter had failed to take up painful, affect-laden, and genetically significant material in the session because of exclusive concentration on transference. What troubled him, he said, was that no one in the audience, which included several leading figures in the field, raised the issue that "dealing with the transference … at this time, in this context, was entirely out of place."
The concept of transference, Dr. Arlow emphasized, is rooted in Freud's very concretistic earl