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Mrs. Sandford's paper was read by me with glee and horror—the glee springing from her fascinating description of her patient's psychotic life so beautifully interwoven with the cat; the horror, because of the objectless, cold aura of the world as it must have been perceived by Elsie. I am afraid I cannot deal with Mrs. Sandford's “reprojections,” “re-introjections,” and “transitional objects”; they sound too much like Elsie's stuffed Spooty (artificial and unsatisfying), but I certainly understand what she intends to convey concerning Elsie's need to find some living thing into whom she could pour her feelings.
The character of this patient reminds me of Horney's description of the “withdrawn” personality who harbors deep unconscious longings for closeness. Might Elsie's erotic devotion to Spooty represent her “often absent” father and lost brother fused into one? Perhaps she reaches out so tentatively with her money because she must first give to another to assuage what must be an overwhelmingly punitive superego growing out of the inner rage against such a mother. (How close the pussycat is to the tiger!) This may also account for her internal “mess” and also explain her need to have an analyst who would see, touch and feel her at this level.
One sees a real beginning of transference with the anger over the analyst's refusal of her “gift” (the cat and its urine). For the patient to accept the analyst as a meaningful person, she must convey to the patient a real demonstration of receptivity at such an infantile level. I admire Mrs. Sandford for her clinical skill and her willingness to meet Elsie in her world (however masochistic this might seem).
I seriously doubt that one can work with such psychotic patients without this openness and zeal. I laughed when I read how Mrs. Sandford's countertransference broke through by “accidentally” dropping the dirt on Elsie's carpet in retaliation for Spooty's office deed.
If we are to understand and emotionally contact such pa