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Many adults who were abused as children have little or no conscious memory of their abuse. Frequently, such individuals enter psychotherapy for symptoms they do not initially relate to their early abusive treatment (Sands, 1991). As repression lifts and patient and therapist together begin to identify and label maltreatment and abusive events, how does the patient experience this process? How is this uncovering process revealed? This chapter seeks to provide answers to these questions.
The two patients to be discussed were and continue to be in four-day-a-week analysis with a graduate analyst who is most comfortable with a self psychology orientation. Both patients were administered the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) (Wechsler, 1981) and the Rorschach Comprehensive System (Exner, 1986) yearly to assess original status and change during their analysis.
Although psychoanalysis has looked quite unfavorably upon any practice that interferes with the developing of the transference neurosis, and testing during analysis would be perceived as one of those practices, this