Discussion of Ian Alger's Article, The Clinical Handling of the Analyst's Responses (Original Version)

(Inadvertently, an altered copy of Dr. Samuel Upton's discussion of Dr. Ian Alger's “The Clinical Handling of the Analyst's Responses” [The Psychoanalytic Forum, Vol. 1, No. 3] was published. The original version follows.)

Dr. Alger has taken the position, supported by references to the literature, that there was a period in the development of analysis, which may indeed persist, when the analyst considered himself detached from the patient, uninvolved, and literally a blank screen or mirror. He states that the analyst dealt with the patient's responses “by denying that they were really directed at him” and argues for the importance of recognizing the actual responses of the analyst and openly exposing what was “once taboo.” In addition to his general support from the literature he cites Freud as late as 1925.

For the purpose of discussion I will refer to this concept as that of the detached analyst, and I will acknowledge that this view has substantial support. More to the point, it has gained enough support from analysts of various levels of experience so that I think it might even be called conventional, and I think Dr. Alger is justified in taking it as a point of departure. Nevertheless I take issue with Dr. Alger and his numerous supporters, both those cited and those unmentioned, and I shall advance two general reasons for my difference of opinion.

First, despite all the apparently knowledgeable criticism of the concept of the detached analyst, I submit that there is not a single advocate of this position to be found either in the literature or even on personal investigation. The first point is, I think, evident. The detached analyst is mentioned in the literature only to be castigated. He is never anything but an unnamed figure. The latter point refers to my personal experience. I was once informed on a presumably reliable basis of the identity of one such analyst who was allegedly a model of detachment and learned on the basis of personal experience that this w