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In recent years a number of contributors1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 have reported success in using modified psychoanalytic interventions that employ emotional as well as overtly rational communication on the part of the analyst to treat severe disturbances such as schizophrenia, which traditionally have been considered beyond the reach of psychoanalysis. In this approach the concept of analytic intervention is generalized to include various forms of verbal and nonverbal communication, such as reflecting or joining the patient's emotional communications and expressing the therapist's induced countertransference feelings at appropriate times. With some exceptions1, 5, 11 these methods have been typically advocated for patients with deep-lying disturbances (especially those with narcissistic or borderline disorders).
In this paper I report a case in which countertransference feelings were communicated to resolve the resistance of a female patient to genital functioning. The patient was fixated as a result of sexual seduction by male relatives in childhood, and in this instance an intervention employing my countertransference feelings succeeded in resolving the patient's resistance after more traditional modes of interpretation proved ineffectual.
This experience supports the thesis that these methods of dealing with resistances may prove highly effective for the total spectrum of emotional disorders and encourages us to explore the idea that the generalized intervention (which relies in part on emotional communication by the analyst) is a powerful therapeutic tool.
Support for this view is found in the suggestion by Strupp12 that ego growth in analysis occurs mainly through imitation and