The Acting Out of Transferences

The main thesis of this paper is the opinion that the acting out of transferences by the ego is done at the behest of the super-ego, and is determined by the attempts of the latter to achieve omnipotence.

The acting out of transferences by a patient in psychoanalysis presents numerous problems to the analyst; chief among these is that the reasons for the patient's acting out, rather than recalling material in his past life, have not been clearly understood. Experience teaches the wisdom of attempting to prevent the patient, whenever possible, from acting out transferences outside of the treatment session. It has long been recognized that the analyst must be on the alert for this likelihood and must do what he can to protect his patient from the harm that may result from such behavior. Aside from the painful, and sometimes disastrous, consequences to the analysand, there is the additional factor that this behavior always constitutes a resistance to the acquisition of insight and the progress of the analysis, especially when the analyst is cast in the role of one of the figures in the transference. At such times the patient does not collaborate with the analyst in the endeavor to understand the unconscious, dynamic forces which motivate his behavior, but sees the analyst in an unreal way and spends his energies in the attempt to gain from the analyst a gratification which cannot be achieved in reality. As long as this situation exists, the patient is not only effectively prevented from understanding the reasons for his distress, but in the most unfortunate instances, it may result in his terminating the analysis prematurely and sometimes with much turmoil, as in the case of Freud's patient, Dora (2).

Patients themselves are often keenly aware of the repetitive and compulsive way in which they act out transferences, and recognize that one of the greatest gains from analysis is the capacity to put an end to this futile and self-damaging activity. Once a patient has had th