You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
The transference neurosis concept is subject to varying definitions and usages. Yet the term is well established in clinical theory and involves developments within the psychoanalytic situation of profound importance. My defense of the term, which includes its redefinition, is based on the following questions:
1. To what degree is a transference neurosis recognized by the nature of the clinical process at a particular point in the course of an analysis and to what degree is it recognized by particular contents, such as oedipal conflicts?
2. Is transference neurosis distinguishable from the general category of transference? The relation of these terms to the infantile neuorsis, the adult neurosis, and to core oedial conflicts is pertinent to the discussion.
3. Can a transference neurosis be specified by clinical data or is it better viewed as a theoretical concept—an operational guide to organize certain conceptions of the clinical data?
4. As a defining characteristic of psychoanalysis, has the transference neurosis concept come to serve as a constraining
Dr. London is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota; Training and Supervising Analyst, Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis.
dogma that limits the analyst in his responsiveness to the unique data of each psychoanalytic situation?
5. Are there better ways to conceptualize the issues that have hitherto been embraced by the transference neurosis concept?
I have noted previously, in a definition similar to that of Greenson (1967):
The transference neurosis is defined by process criteria as well as by the repetition of past conflicts in the current reality of the transference. The analysand develops a “therapeutic split” into a reactive self and a self-observing or reflectiveself. His life apart from the analytic situation becomes more manageable and successful, with a relative relief of symptoms. He becomes fully absorbed in the analysis so that it becomes the major pr