Epilogue

THE CLINICAL MATERIAL PRESENTED BY JOSEPH NEWIRTH GENERATED many different responses in the discussants. These discussions and Newirth's response to them highlight Newirth's psychoanalytic approach and how it is similar or different from the discussants'.

The discussant whose theoretical orientation is most similar to Newirth's is probably James Gooch. Both of them are heavily influenced by Klein's work. Gooch is also working from a Bionian perspective, while Newirth has integrated the work of Matte-Blanco into his own. As Newirth makes clear, his emphasis on transforming the concrete thought processes of the paranoid position into the symbolic capacities of the depressive position is similar to Gooch's transformation of beta elements into alpha elements, making the analysand's toxic, intolerable experience understandable and comprehensible. Gooch and Newirth also see Gooch's distinction between verbal aspects of an interpretation and the music and dance or nonverbal sincerity of the analyst as analogous to Newirth's discursive and presentational symbols.

The difference between these perspectives centers on the use of interpretation as compared to enactment. Newirth embraces the use of enactment and elaboration of the transference-countertransference fantasies as part of his effort to work within the concrete symmetrical sphere. He believes that the analysand's transformation is a developmental process within the relationship, not primarily a process of understanding and insight. Gooch, on the other hand, believes that interpretation keeps the analysand from being overwhelmed by her anxiety and confusion and reassures her that the analyst is able to provide the necessary parental alpha functions to help her. In Newirth's terms, Gooch is using symbolic symmetrical interventions, or interpretations, instead of the concrete symmetrical enactment that Newirth advocates. Newirth suggests that his approach is a two-person relational orientation while Gooch's is a one-person