Discussion of Charles William Wahl's Article, Psychoanalysis of the Rich, the Famous, and the Influential

According to Wahl, when analyzing rich, famous, or influential patients, analysts sometimes make mistakes which cause treatment to be “incomplete, ineffective, or unsatisfactory.” From his description, we may deduce that this incorrect behavior on the part of the analyst arises (in general terms) from masochistic submission to his superego and to his castration complex, which leads him to make partial identifications with the unconscious neurotic reactions of the analysand.

The mistakes made by analysts in these cases are of a countertransferential origin. Now, the countertransference reactions of an analyst are provoked by the unconscious neurotic reactions of his patients. To be more precise, the countertransference reactions of an analyst reflect (in a parallel or complementary way) the neurotic reactions of his patients. Therefore, self-analysis of his own countertransferences will show an analyst the nature of the unconscious neurotic behavior of his patients.

Analysts sometimes fail to analyze their countertransference reactions because they are unaware of them. Dr. Wahl's interesting article, which calls attention to them in addition to pointing out some of their special characteristics and latent contents, will help analysts make adequate use of their countertransference in understanding the unconscious of rich, famous, and influential patients.

I shall give three examples of how this may occur in certain cases. According to Dr. Wahl, “the inappropriate disclosures of patient identification or material” show, as revealed by the analysis of “dreams of intimacy,” an “immediate and pervasive lack of self-esteem” in the analyst. When the analyst finds himself tending “to make “inappropriate disclosures” about his patient and, on conducting a self-analysis of this countertransference reaction, finds a latent content of a lack

of self-esteem, he may deduce that in his patient there is also a “pervasive lack of self-esteem” which has caused him to become neurotical