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As biographers have come to recognize the usefulness of psychological perspectives in their approach to their subjects, many of them have also begun to explore the effects of internal dynamics on the biographer's task. Typically, this problem has been approached in terms of the author's identification with the subject. Evolving psychoanalytic concepts of transference and countertransference, particularly those deriving from object relations theories and self psychology, offer enhanced insight into these issues. This article examines some of the transference configurations that may influence the biographer's relation to both subject and reader.
The unconscious fantasies that help shape the biographer's craft reflect a broad range of experiences that the psychoanalyst typically studies in the context of transference and countertransference. A major difference, of course, is that the psychoanalyst is guided by the constraints of the consulting room, constraints which ideally reflect a therapeutic function and a systematic technique of intervention. But the relevance of the work of the analyst to that of the biographer becomes apparent when we examine the constant interplay of memory, wish, and realistic appraisal that governs all social relationships. Then it becomes obvious that whether the imagined other exists primarily as an echo to the author's monologue or as a clearly differentiated participant in a dialogue, the written work has transferential features.
In recent years, astute biographers have begun to articulate their increasing awareness of this issue. As Leon Edel summed up his psychoanalytically informed relationship to Henry James: “I had to disengage myself from James as a father figure and a mother figure, and also a brother figure. He could combine them all and also be a surrogate for each” (Edel, 1987, p. 25). The tendency to