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THIS SYMPOSIUM CONSIDERS THE TECHNICAL AND THEORETICAL significance of ineffable aspects of transference. Multisystems concepts of memory, learning, and knowledge from disciplines related to psychoanalysis specifically call attention to patterns of nonverbal and preverbal experience and fantasy. These unconsciously conditioned ways of experiencing self and others are present in the clinical situation as important constituents of entrenched, unconscious transference expectations, attitudes, and reactions, the nature and origin of which may never be entirely retrieved as declarative knowledge and memory. Nondeclarative conceptualizations like “emotional memory” thus serve to highlight both the technical difficulties and strengths of the psychoanalytic situation and process. In this issue, the influence on psychoanalytic practice of models of the mind from cognate disciplines was examined across varied analytic perspectives.
Despite the diversity of analytic positions on these pages, a convergence of clinical emphases emerged concerning the workings of metaphoric processes in treatment. Collectively, the papers suggest that metaphor suffuses all facets of psychoanalytic exploration and provides a theoretical base for interacting features of psychoanalytic treatment and change. Close attention to the workings of metaphor in treatment may clarify and advance theories of psychoanalytic practice, expanding the common ground among them.