Transference occurs across group boundaries

Transference occurs when a perceiver's representation of a significant other is activated and applied to a new target person (Andersen & Chen, 2002). Extending past research, it was hypothesized that transference occurs even when a target person possesses a core feature—namely, group membership status—that is inapplicable to the relevant significant-other representation. Supporting this, transference led perceivers to make representation-consistent memory and evaluation judgments about a target—regardless of whether the target's political (experiment 1) or ethnic (experiment 2) group membership was the same or different from that of the relevant significant other. Moreover, in experiment 2, perceivers undergoing transference involving a positively evaluated significant other behaved more positively toward the target even when the target was from an ethnic out-group. The results represent initial evidence of transference processes occurring across group boundaries. Implications for transference and the reduction of out-group bias are discussed.     

TRANSFERENCE BEFORE TRANSFERENCE

This paper is predominantly a clinical presentation that describes the transmigration of one patient's transference to another, with the analyst functioning as a sort of transponder. It involves an apparently accidental episode in which there was an unconscious intersection between two patients. The author's aim is to show how transference from one case may affect transference in another, a phenomenon the author calls transference before transference. The author believes that this idea may serve as a tool for understanding the unconscious work that takes place in the clinical situation. In a clinical example, the analyst finds himself caught up in an enactment involving two patients in which he becomes the medium of what happens in session.     

Latent inhibition and context change in psychometrically defined schizotypy

The disruption of latent inhibition within the schizophrenia spectrum has often been interpreted either as a result of increased attentional distractibility (attentional account) or as a result of deficient interference of past associations (associative account). The aim of the present investigation was to test competing predictions, as derived from the above theoretical accounts. In a visual search paradigm of latent inhibition, accuracy was examined as a function of prior experience with the target, and psychometrically defined schizotypy. In Experiment 1 (N=60), no context change was introduced. In accord with past evidence, latent inhibition was found to be intact in low-, but disrupted in high-schizotypy scorers, a result predicted both by attentional and associative accounts. In Experiment 2 (N=60), a context change was introduced. As predicted by past evidence, latent inhibition was disrupted in low-schizotypy scorers. However, latent inhibition was found to be intact in high-schizotypy scorers, a finding accommodated by attentional, but not associative accounts. Theoretical implications and alternative interpretations are also considered.     

NARCISSISTIC DEFENSES IN THE DISTORTION OF FREE ASSOCIATION AND THEIR UNDERLYING ANXIETIES

This paper examines particular distortions in the process of free association characteristics of patients with narcissistic personality disorders. The author proposes that the dominant narcissistic transference developments typical of the early and middle phases of the analytic treatment of these patients are reflected in these distortions of free association. This paper gathers the various patterns that these defensive distortions present, along with technical interventions geared to deal with them.     

Psychotic functioning in adolescence: The perverse solution to survive

A psychotic breakdown in adolescence marks the emergence of a manifest aspect of a more complex process that has its origins in the patient's family pre‐history and in the patient's childhood story. This period of life is characterized by a sensorial explosion and adolescents will react differently according to the different resources they have at their disposal. Adolescents will attempt to create defensive solutions in order to face this decompensation on their own. In particular, polymorphously perverse behaviours can be utilized because of their specific characteristics in order to create a potent defence used to arrest a still more severe regression and at the same time providing the time necessary to safely navigate through a difficult and dangerous developmental phase. These solutions can be transitory or transform themselves into lasting defensive adaptations. These defensive modalities are very complex and articulated and can become fossilized in time, as, for example, in the case of a use of perverse defences against a breakdown. An analyst finding him/herself in these situations will find it difficult to differentiate in the diagnosis between a condition that is due to a perverse functioning used as a defence against decompensation, and a truly perverse structure that is beginning to emerge after puberty.     

A History Which Began to Be Told: A Clinical Case

This article aims to reflect on the possible contributions of psychoanalysis in relation to severely disturbed patients by means of the presentation of a clinical case. Beginning with the family history, the evolutionary process of the symptoms and identification movements of the patient are analysed. The observation of the transference dynamics is emphasised, showing how the desire of the analyst and his privileged listening will allow the patient some level of possible subjective structure.     

Psychoanalyst's Values and Countertransference

On the subject of countertransference we attempt to establish a line of continuity between Freud's own expression "blind spot" and Fromm's idea of "counterattitude". It is pointed out that both expressed the idea of the analyst's unconscious as an "instrument" for understanding the patient's unconscious. It follows that the decision to openly use or not to use countertransference in analysis also depends on the concept we have of it and on its extent. The psychoanalyst's real and illusory values and his convictions with regard to human nature influence the countertransference and the analytic relationship. Analytic listening itself may be distorted by it. We must be highly aware of this to avoid enclosing what the patient says in a theoretic scheme. What is needed, therefore, is an open theoretic scheme, more oriented towards understanding than interpretation. Aspects of analytic communication and of the relationship between language, thought and insight are examined. A humanistic point of view is assumed in distinguishing between the transferral and the real plane, and the reasons behind the legitimacy of such a distinction are expounded.     

Transference,triangles and trajectories

In this article the author addresses the issue of the need to lessen the likelihood of a regressive transference neurosis in short-term therapy. He examines the role that active interpretation of the transference can have in shaping the transference so that it remains at the level of the transference that is ubiquitous. He explores the relationship between such an active interpretative approach and the need for the therapist to be empathic and sensitive to the patient and to allow space for a patient's independent discoveries. The author describes the role of the Central Therapeutic Focus, as a constellation of the Triangles of Insight, in guiding the therapist to select those manifestations of the transference to interpret, and in enabling the therapist to retain a stance that is sensitive and empathic. The Central Therapeutic Focus is contrasted with the concept of the Central Issue, and with the latter's more specific attention to the contribution that it makes to the therapist's communication of their empathic understanding of the patient's difficulties. The nature of the relationship between the therapist and the patient in short-term therapy is explored further and the connections between companionable interaction, ego-relatedness and the matrix of the transference are outlined. The author proceeds to consider the nature of the process of working through in short-term therapy and of the need to attend to the patient's external world as the place in which this can occur. The contribution of the Central Therapeutic Focus in shaping the trajectory through which the patient and therapist attend to the external world is examined. This in turn is linked to the identification of a patient's ordinary solution to their problem as a means of resolving their Dilemma. The article concludes with a case example that illustrates these themes.     

Transference with the borderline client

This paper addresses the question of what is involved in psychodynamic counselling with borderline clients. The concept of borderline functioning or structure is explained and the technical difficulties of working in this area noted, especially in the establishment of a working alliance. The types of transference manifestations with borderline clients are then described, looking in particular at the emergence of a psychotic transference. Two case examples are given of working with borderline clients, where the transference was dominated by primitive elements, provoking powerful countertransference reactions in the counsellor. How both the client and the counsellor can be contained in the therapeutic work is then addressed. Finally, some implications of this discussion are drawn out for the training of psychodynamic counsellors, in order to equip them best for working with borderline clients. Three features of what a training should offer are identified: it should provide students with the opportunity for the exploration of the psychotic parts of their own personality; it should allow for and encourage the internalization of psychoanalysis itself as a sustaining internal object; and it should provide students with the experience of working with clients over sufficient time and at sufficient depth so they can learn about the timing and effectiveness of interventions in work with borderline clients.