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In both traditional and relational psychoanalytic conceptions of the treatment frame, the appearance of the person of the analyst (or therapist) from behind the wizard's curtain has accompanied a general acceptance of the shift from a “one-person” to a “two-person” psychology. As Abend (1995) stated at a White Institute plenary panel (at which he commented that he thought he had been invited as “a spokesman for the traditional, or classical position”), “Talk about a two-person model of analytic process—what other model is tenable?” (p. 208).
The question posed at this White Institute fiftieth anniversary conference, “Self-Disclosure: Therapeutic Tool or Indulgence,” reflects our common contemporary dilemma as we try to figure out what should or should not be going on between the two people inside the treatment frame. Greenberg (1995), presenting a clinical vignette along with a detailed rationale for why he had chosen to answer a patient's direct question with analytic silence, asserted: “Received technical prescriptions cannot help me in this moment with Mr. C; I must rely on what I know about him, myself, and about our relationship in deciding how to respond” (pp. 202-203). And Abend (1995), commenting from his “classical” position, elaborated further: “We should not feel compelled to construct theoretical justifications for allowing our natures and needs to affect the way we work since we