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I hope this issue has given you a vivid sense of the Lodge of yesteryear, and of Harold Searles’ work there. Many of you are reading this issue because you were already familiar with Searles’ outstanding published works. You may have encountered “Joan Douglas” before, in several of his articles (to my knowledge, Searles always used that assumed name for this same patient). This issue helps locate Searles in the formative environment of his fifteen years working at the Lodge.
Our field deals with the subjectivity of each patient, as well as the subjectivity of each analyst. We have been privileged to view this case conference through the subjectivities of several colleagues who knew the Lodge first-hand, as well as through the eyes of one of our most distinguished relational analysts, who has enormous respect for Searles’ work.
Adrienne Harris writes from her perspective as a founder and leader of the relational school of analysis, which has always had a high opinion of Searles’ contributions. She calls this surviving case conference “a precious relic.” Adrienne is extensively familiar with analytic theory, so she has high credibility when she calls the transcript a “quite revolutionary text.” She persuasively connects Searles’ original ideas with several other prominent analysts. She underlines his recognition of Joan’s early trauma. As she notes, the patient’s illness worsened after her mother’s death – characteristic of patients after their abuser is no longer alive to punish them for disclosing the abuse. Adrienne credits Searles for courageously helping demonstrate an “ontological” approach to treatment – wearing the patient’s projected attributions, and allowing himself to be profoundly affected by his patient – decades before Thomas Ogden named it as such, and back when it subjected Searles to bitter controversy.
Not surprisingly for a relational analyst, Adrienne also highlights the multiple interpersonal relationships depicted in this case report, as they came