Models as Vehicles of Transference: Observations from Biographical Studies

The science of psychoanalysis has, from its discovery, utilized a variety of scientific models designed to guide the psychoanalytic investigator in the collection, classification, and interpretation of observations made. Models serve as provisional maps for those who travel into an uncharted territory. Although the reliability of these maps cannot be guaranteed, their usefulness is undeniable. Through the use of scientific models, perceptions are organized into coherent and communicable schemata about which some degree of consensus has been reached over a period of time. Despite the fact that there can be no certainty about the accuracy of scientific models, their use constitutes an effective way for the investigator to communicate his perceptions to others and facilitates the dialogue necessary for any intellectual pursuit.

In this paper I use the term model in a broad sense in an effort to by-pass complex issues of definition and distinction between it and such other related terms as schema, paradigm, or prototype. Although I am quite sure one can postulate several levels of distinction in the use and meaning of such terms, it is extremely difficult to reach a consensus about them. It is important to keep in mind that models provide, in one form or another, a pictorial representation of a number of complex intellectual concepts and propositions,