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The Realities of Transference, the sixth volume of Progress in Self Psychology edited by Arnold Goldberg, promises far more than it delivers. The book contains 14 chapters divided into four sections headed Progress in Theory, Progress in Development, Progress in the Approach to Psychopathology, and Progress in the Application of Self-Psychology. Readers looking for new developments in self psychology or challenges to their existing formulations and techniques will be disappointed in all but the first six brief chapters (67 pages out of 263).
Five of the first chapters are organized in the form of dialogues. The origins of transference, the contribution of the analyst to its development, its technical management, and the process of cure are the focus of discussion in these chapters. Differing points of view are clearly stated and theoretical claims are supported by detailed clinical evidence including the patient's associations, the analyst's interventions, and the patient's responses to the analyst.
In one dialogue, Anna Ornstein addresses the role of extra-analytic transference interpretations in the analysis of character. She believes that because certain transferences will not emerge in the analytic situation, they must be identified and interpreted in extra-analytic relationships. She argues that analysis of disruptions in selfobject transferences in and out of the analytic relationship is basic to effective analytic work. Disruptions offer the best opportunity for reconstructive interpretations and through the process of disruption, interpretation, and reconstruction a number of important mutative events occur. These include the recall of memories, the promotion of self reflection and insight, and an empathic acceptance of one's own childhood self.
In contrast, Frank Lachmann posits that reconstructive interpretations do not work by imparting insight but by restoring the