The analyst's awkward gift: balancing recognition of sexuality with parental protectiveness

The author describes the many roles that the analyst is called upon to fulfill in the transference during the course of an analysis. The loving transference is distinguished from the erotic transference and the erotized transference. Repetition is discussed, as is narcissism, especially in the light of clinical situations in which oedipal issues take center stage. Four brief clinical examples are presented.