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Dr. Little is to be commended for his paper. A degree of self-exposure, not usually met in published papers, was required to satisfy the goal he set for himself, but in doing so he directs our attention to the important fundamental problems inherent in analytic work—those problems which we have to face and master when some kind of disaster overtakes us.
I use the word “disaster” advisedly. It points up the fact that for an event to produce the transference-countertransference reactions outlined in this paper, it must be of sufficient magnitude. A life-threatening event and its concomitant question of survival are the essential issues here for both analyst and patient; for the analyst it is the present awesome reality, and for the patient, his past traumatic experiences.
Dr. Little contends “that under certain stressful situations involving threats [italics mine] to the analyst, such a transference reaction [regression in the service of the ego] may be of crucial importance for the patient's analysis to survive.” I suggest that an elaboration of what is meant by a threatening situation might be helpful here. As I see it, Dr. Little is referring to those situations which so overwhelm the analyst that he himself needs the time to master and integrate the external event. Once this is accomplished, he, the analyst, is then ready to help the patient to master and integrate the experience in a meaningful way. Certainly, in the case cited, the mutual compliance “to detour around” the source of the patient's anger and her reluctance to deal with
it was needed. But would this detour have been necessary if Dr. Little, at the outset of his return to work, had been fully prepared to meet such transference responses? I do not think so, nor do I feel that Dr. Little feels so, either.
It is precisely because the effect of an external disaster is so devastating to one's internal equilibrium that Dr. Little has done a real service by sharing his experience with us. Such events often