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Dr. Abend raises the problem of the effectiveness of work in the transference with adolescent patients. He does not say why it is difficult for adolescents to explore such issues, but I shall respond to what I think is implied in his question. I agree with what I think Dr. Abend was thinking, which is that too much concentration on the transference in interpretations can be experienced by the patient as intrusive, claustrophobic-making, or even possessive by an age group that is studying how to separate out from parent figures and establish their own adult identity. I am constantly surprised, however, how the opposite is true with many deprived adolescents, who—if they are more of the depressed or dissociated type, rather than the more hardened or frozen type—are often quite surprised and touched by transference interpretations, which somehow help them to feel that the relationship does matter to the therapist. They even appreciate comments about more infantile parts, whereas the more ordinary tough adolescent may abhor that. But with adolescents like Luisa, I do comment on the transference much less than I would have in the past, and often prefer to leave things in the transitional area so that the patient can take on board none or some of the transference implication, as he or she wishes: “You really do find that teacher so loathsome and irritating—is it something to do with the bossiness you described?” I would, however, be listening to the transference implications throughout, as a sort of bass note to the session. And I certainly would interpret it some of the time. I think in Luisa's case, for example, it was extremely important for her to understand that I understood her fear of my begrudging her a right to sexuality, as in the Spice Girls/clumpy shoes dream and the wheelchair dream. I would not want to leave things entirely in the outside world. There is insufficient space to go into this further, but I suspect Dr. Abend would agree that there i