THE CONCEPT OF OBJECTIVE COUNTERTRANSFERENCE AND ITS ROLE IN A TWO-PERSON PSYCHOLOGY

Objective countertransference comprises those feelings the analyst experiences with the patient that are repetitions of feelings from the patient's life outside the analysis. It is viewed as being induced by the patient and is understood in the context of the patient's life, not the analyst's. The concept is used to understand the relationship of some of the analyst's feelings to recurrent interpersonal patterns in the patient's life. It has often been viewed as being incompatible with a two-person psychology. Here, in contrast, it is argued that objective countertransference is only one current within the analyst's total emotional response to the patient, and that it should be conceptualized as a component of a broader two-person psychology. However, the use of objective countertransference as a conceptual tool highlights aspects of the analytic relationship that differ from those emphasized in current two-person models. A case example is analyzed from both perspectives to illustrate their similarities and differences. Although the concept of objective countertransference can enrich the analyst's understanding of certain dimensions of the analytic relationship, it is not a theory of technique and it is not wedded to any particular style of psychoanalytic intervention.     

The analyst's witnessing and otherness

The analyst's active though silent witnessing of the patient's self-inquiry is presented as an essential aspect of the analytic process. Witnessing, though rooted in the analyst's empathy and holding, represents a more advanced development of those functions based on relational muturation from union to self-other differentiation. Self-definition and regard for otherness are seen as intrinsically unitary. Psychoanalytic witnessing is first illustrated and defined, then located as a derivative of negation in the unfolding of the analytic process, next considered in relation to current concerns for intersubjectivity, and finally linked to current shifts in philosophical thought.     

Elements of analytic style: Bion's clinical seminars

The author finds that the idea of analytic style better describes significant aspects of the way he practices psychoanalysis than does the notion of analytic technique. The latter is comprised to a large extent of principles of practice developed by previous generations of analysts. By contrast, the concept of analytic style, though it presupposes the analyst's thorough knowledge of analytic theory and technique, emphasizes (1) the analyst's use of his unique personality as reflected in his individual ways of thinking, listening, and speaking, his own particular use of metaphor, humor, irony, and so on; (2) the analyst's drawing on his personal experience, for example, as an analyst, an analysand, a parent, a child, a spouse, a teacher, and a student; (3) the analyst's capacity to think in a way that draws on, but is independent of, the ideas of his colleagues, his teachers, his analyst, and his analytic ancestors; and (4) the responsibility of the analyst to invent psychoanalysis freshly for each patient. Close readings of three of Bion's 'Clinical seminars' are presented in order to articulate some of the elements of Bion's analytic style. Bion's style is not presented as a model for others to emulate or, worse yet, imitate; rather, it is described in an effort to help the reader consider from a different vantage point (provided by the concept of analytic style) the way in which he, the reader, practices psychoanalysis.     

A crisis in the analyst's life: self-containment, symbolization, and the holding space

Most analysts will experience some degree of crisis in the course of their working life. This paper explores the complex interplay between the analyst's affect during a crisis in her lifeü and the affective dynamics of the patient. The central question is "who or what holds the analyst"--especially in times of crisis. Symbolization of affect, facilitated by the analyst's self-created holding environment, is seen as a vital process in order for containment to take place. In the clinical case presented, the analyst's dog was an integral part of the analyst's self-righting through this difficult period; the dog functioned as an "analytic object" within the analysis.     

Some vicissitudes of aggression in the interpretive process.

Interpretation is a product of compromise formation that requires optimal use of the analyst's aggression to be an effective analytic intervention. Aggressive aims useful for the interpretive act are problematic for analysts and have led both to clinical difficulties and to various theoretical reactions against considering interpretation essential for analytic progress. In analysis, diverging aims of analyst and patient are highlighted in connection with the analyst's function as interpreter. The interactions between patient and analyst pertaining to interpretation provide insights into the patient's intrapsychic conflicts that may be less apparent in other material.     

Creating analysts, creating analytic patients

This paper applies a contemporary, 'two-track'- transformational as well as archaeological - perspective on psychoanalytic process to clinical issues in the creation of analytic patients: case finding, recommending analysis, and recommending and negotiating the intensification of frequency of sessions in analytic psychotherapy. Central importance is assigned to the role of the mind and analytic identity of the analyst, including the analyst's capacity to maintain an internal analytic frame and analyzing attitude from the very first contact with the patient and throughout the treatment, the analyst's confidence in and conviction about the usefulness of analysis for a given analytic dyad and the role of the analyst's theory, which must be broad and consistent enough to allow the analyst to feel that he or she is operating analytically when addressing non-neurotic (unrepresented and weakly represented mental states) as well as neurotic structures.     

Questioning the psychoanalyst's authority

Sources of the trend to question not just the analyst's authority to interpret, but the analyst's use of authority in general, are explored. Out of a wish to circumvent the potentially detrimental effects an analyst's interpretations can have on patients, certain psychoanalysts have modified their analytic techniques with an eye to downplaying the role of their authority. When taken to extremes, this has led analysts to act as if they have little to offer patients in the way of an alternative point of view, and to privilege patients' accounts and interpretations by treating them as if they were objectively true. It is argued that one need not go so far in order to protect patients from the analyst's less than careful use of authority. It is argued further that the judicious use of authority remains an indispensable tool in helping to ready the patient's mind for a consideration of constructs different from those on which the patient has always relied. Finally, becoming comfortable with the aggressive aspect of the use of one's authority may determine the extent to which one is willing to employ one's authority with patients.     

Countertransference, conflictual listening, and the analytic object relationship

Analytic listening is an ongoing conflictual process, containing all the components of conflict and shaped in every moment by both the patient's and the analyst's conflicts. The mutual responsiveness that develops between analyst and patient stems from a complex conflictual object relationship, fundamentally no different from any other object relationship, in which countertransference at all times simultaneously facilitates and interferes with the analytic work. Detailed clinical process is used to illustrate these and related phenomena, including the use of signal conflict, the benign negative countertransference, the function of countertransference structures, and the analyst's use of projection. The analyst's affects, thoughts, and actions trace the shifting nature of the patient's transference and resistance, and the level of the object relationship continuously being created between patient and analyst.     

"Nothing could be further from the truth": the role of lack in the analytic process

It is an oft-noted clinical phenomenon that the analyst's mistakes are beneficial to the analytic process. Although the analyst's mistakes, misunderstandings, and faulty functioning have been described by psychoanalysts of various theoretical persuasions, no overall theory has been advanced to account for this clinical phenomenon. To address this theoretical lacuna the central Lacanian notions of lack and desire are brought to bear. In particular, lack, or nothing, is presented as an essential working condition of the analyst, one that if understood, recognized, and tolerated can positively inform the analyst's attitude. By contrast, theoretical biases that privilege presence can obscure lack as an important contributor to the analyst's attitude. A clinical case demonstrates that both analyst and patient struggle with deep anxieties generated by lack, and that both are repeatedly tempted to solve these struggles by settling for obsessional solutions.     

On the analyst's neutrality

It is by the application of the principle of neutrality, born of his respect for the essential otherness of the patient, that the analyst focuses the dyadic analytic work in the service of the patient's growing self-analytic capacity. Thus, the general principle of neutrality is distinguished from the technical tactic of abstinence, the latter being a specific function utilized to facilitate and foster analytic regression. Neutrality can be defined as it applies to the major subfunctions of the analyst's work ego. Perception of the patient's intrapsychic processes (both empathically and cognitively) requires a neutrality of appearance on the analyst's part in order to minimize the distortion of the unfolding transference neurosis. Integration and understanding of the patient's communications require mastery and neutralization of the analyst's own internal processes in order to minimize countertransferential distortions. Appropriate interpretive intervention requires neutrality of action, i.e., mastery of impulses related to power, neutralizing them into the service of the analytic work; tact is defined as a specific psychoanalytic function in this regard. Collaborative ignorance is examined as a specific instance of false neutrality. In this an analytic guise serves to mask a countertransferential conflict. Neutrality serves as an overriding technical principle, not an imperative for perfectionism . Factors intrinsic to the analytic process also influence the application of this principle.     

The analyst's theory: A third source of countertransference

The author asserts that the analyst's theory, personal and/or academic, is an important source of countertransference which complicates our traditional understanding of the analyst's emotional responses as being constructed from a mix of his transferences and the patient's effects on him. From this perspective, theory - because it has no intrinsic relevance to the essential phenomena of individual analytic processes - may be a confounding, as well as a necessary, factor in clinical work. Although the analyst's theory might be conceptualized as a component of his personality that shapes his emotional reactions to a patient, the author believes that there is a valuable increment of conceptual clarity and additional clinical utility to thinking about a more direct role of theory in the process of countertransference formation. He uses aspects of the clinical analysis of narcissistic resistances to illustrate how some theories might predispose an analyst to confounding unconscious enactments by generating either positive or negative countertransferences which can be used defensively by the patient and/or analyst. He also illustrates how, in some contexts, an analyst's theory might attenuate potentially informative countertransference reactions and interfere in this way with the analyst's apprehension of the patient's psychic functioning. Finally the author addresses the importance of 'fit' between an analyst's working theory and a patient's psychopathology, and considers implications of his ideas for psychoanalytic training and practice.     

The holding environment and intersubjectivity

The holding environment is explored in the context of the analytic dyad, where it is seen as rooted in the patient's need to be experientially known through the intersubjective interaction. In examining previous emphasis on holding as an optimally attuned empathic environment provided by the analyst, a broadened view of what constitutes a holding environment is presented, underscoring its interactional nature. A distinction is made between empathic holding based on the patient's expressed material, and holding that is generated through the analyst's intersubjective knowledge, gained via ongoing intersubjective engagements and enactments. It is argued that the unmediated connection to the patient's internal representations resulting from these intersubjective interactions, and the ensuing verbal exploration of them, can create a profound sense of being understood and thus held. A clinical process depicting the experience of holding in an intersubjective context is presented.     

Turning aggression on the self: a study of psychoanalytic process

The concept of turning aggression on the self is studied, and some clinical vignettes are presented which demonstrate the use of this concept as a guide to the formation of an "ideal" for one kind of analytic intervention with one kind of analytic surface. Pertinent literature is reviewed, and assumptions implicit to the analyst's activity are discussed. This endeavor is viewed in the larger context of attempts to arrive at a clearer understanding of the psychoanalytic process.     

Psychic reality and the analytic relationship

In this article I have argued that the more linear transformations or desymbolized expressions of one's earliest relationships are always a part of psychic reality and represent a unique opportunity in the analytic situation to transform a person's emotional orientation to the world. A necessary condition for this to come about is the analyst's capacity for sustained interest in the patient. This interest, which goes well beyond an intellectual one, can be threatened by countertransference as well as certain assumptions the analyst has about the nature of the analytic process. The analyst's belief in the analytic process, a belief that can only come from his or her own analysis, is seen as crucial in helping the transformational process that occurs in a successful analysis.     

Some images of the analyst's participation in the analytic process

This paper was originally presented at a workshop (with G. Atwood and S. Parks) on The analyst's participation in the analytic process'. The analyst's 'vulnerability' is highlighted, with specific reference to the ideas of Winnicott, Searles and Jung. Some personal metaphors for the nature of the analytic engagement are offered, as is the image of the 'troubled analyst' from a patient's dream. The burden and necessity of the analyst's participation are emphasized.     

Analytic neutrality, anonymity, abstinence, and elective self-disclosure

Recent contributions to the psychoanalytic literature propose new ways of understanding analytic neutrality, anonymity, abstinence, and self-disclosure. They advocate elective self-disclosure by the analyst as an antidote to the allegedly game-playing quality of transference and resistance analysis. The analytic relationship, they assert, becomes unreal when attempts are made to observe the principles of neutrality and abstinence. Both are seen as ill-conceived because of the irreducible subjectivity and unwarranted authority of the analyst. These relational and interactional views are criticized because (1) they ignore the fact that transference and resistance analysis have from Freud onward been accepted as minimal criteria qualifying a clinical process as psychoanalytic; (2) elective self-disclosure carries metapsychological implications dismissing not only Freud's theory of motivation but motivation as a basic feature of human personality; (3) they do not recognize interpersonal relations as mental events and so do not consider the ego's ability to create intrapsychic representations of object relations; (4) elective self-disclosures within the empathic parameters of the analytic situation are themselves unreal compared to the reality of the patient's experience with other objects. Abstinence and neutrality as ideals facilitate maintenance of an internal holding environment or container for the analyst's countertransference.     

The third position: reflections about the internal analytic working process

The development of a third position is a key aspect of the analyst's ability to survive in the analytic relationship. In exploring the value of the third position, the author discusses other models relevant to clinical work, including the analytic-therapeutic position, the internal analyst, the alive analytic contact, and the phobic position. A case example illustrates these models and forms the basis for further discussion of the internal analytic working process.     

This art of psychoanalysis

It is the art of psychoanalysis in the making, a process inventing itself as it goes, that is the subject of this paper. The author articulates succinctly how he conceives of psychoanalysis, and offers a detailed clinical illustration. He suggests that each analysand unconsciously (and ambivalently) is seeking help in dreaming his 'night terrors' (his undreamt and undreamable dreams) and his 'nightmares' (his dreams that are interrupted when the pain of the emotional experience being dreamt exceeds his capacity for dreaming). Undreamable dreams are understood as manifestations of psychotic and psychically foreclosed aspects of the personality; interrupted dreams are viewed as reflections of neurotic and other non-psychotic parts of the personality. The analyst's task is to generate conditions that may allow the analysand-with the analyst's participation-to dream the patient's previously undreamable and interrupted dreams. A significant part of the analyst's participation in the patient's dreaming takes the form of the analyst's reverie experience. In the course of this conjoint work of dreaming in the analytic setting, the analyst may get to know the analysand sufficiently well for the analyst to be able to say something that is true to what is occurring at an unconscious level in the analytic relationship. The analyst's use of language contributes significantly to the possibility that the patient will be able to make use of what the analyst has said for purposes of dreaming his own experience, thereby dreaming himself more fully into existence.     

Analyzing disavowed action: the fundamental resistance of analysis

Several detailed analytic hours illustrate how, with the analyst's full participation, patients use the words, setting, and activity of analysis to gratify the very wishes they are analyzing, and so disavow the work of analysis. These gratifications, which are hidden in plain sight, are themselves disavowed in the apparent pursuit of analytic understanding. In this way the patient's and the analyst's use of the analytic situation becomes the fundamental resistance to the work itself. This process shares features in common with perversion. The painful but necessary task for both analyst and patient is to analyze this process as it is occurring, moment by moment, in the real time of the hour.     

On teaching psychoanalysis

Teaching psychoanalysis is no less an art than is the practice of psychoanalysis. As is true of the analytic experience, teaching psychoanalysis involves an effort to create clearances in which fresh forms of thinking and dreaming may emerge, with regard to both psychoanalytic theory and clinical practice. Drawing on his experience of leading two ongoing psychoanalytic seminars, each in its 25th year, the author offers observations concerning (1) teaching analytic texts by reading them aloud, line by line, in the seminar setting, with a focus on how the writer is thinking/writing and on how the reader is altered by the experience of reading; (2) treating clinical case presentations as experiences in collective dreaming in which the seminar members make use of their own waking dreaming to assist the presenter in dreaming aspects of his experience with the patient that the analytic pair has not previously been able to dream; (3) reading poetry and fi ction as a way of enhancing the capacity of the seminar members to be aware of and alive to the effects created by the patient's and the analyst's use of language; and (4) learning to overcome what one thought one knew about conducting analytic work, i.e. learning to forget what one has learned.