Transference analysis as the ideal of the psychoanalyst

Abstract

In Freud’s compact definition, transference is both the greatest obstacle and the most powerful ally in understanding the psychodynamic of the analysand. With transference thus defined as the nucleus of the psychoanalytic therapeutic relationship, the analysis of the transference becomes the analyst’s methodological ideal. The article aims at rendering the two extremes of the ideal visible: as an obstacle, transference must be cleared; as an ally, it is a goal that must be achieved. These two extremes are discussed by presenting two samples of work, one by Freud himself and one by Leon Grinberg. In a successful analytic process, the analysis of transference naturally links the two extremes together. However, as the patient’s most severely conflict-laden dynamic is condensed in transference, its direct interpretation is not nearly always possible (a case vignette illustrates this). Thus the reliability of the setting and the oedipal structure of the analytic interaction come to the fore in the analytic process. In order to maintain and use them for the benefit of the patient, the analyst must be prepared to continuously analyse his or her own counter-transferences.