Analyst's Use Research Articles

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.

Finding the neutral position: patient and analyst perspectives.

In light of current debates between classical and intersubjective schools of psychoanalysis, the challenge posed by the latter to such basic concepts as the analyst's neutrality, anonymity, and abstinence is taken up. It is maintained that the term neutral position is today more germane and meaningful than the term neutrality, which frequently has been taken to prescribe the analyst's posture. It is proposed that for each patient the neutral position is uniquely sited and that it is incumbent on the analyst to find its location. The neutral position is defined within the context of the interaction between analyst and patient. The concept is therefore compatible with--indeed it is essential to--an intersubjective or relational orientation. The manifold reasons, conscious and unconscious, why the analyst is vulnerable to leaving the neutral position are considered. The patient's reaction to the analyst who has left the neutral position and the analyst's clinical use of this reaction are discussed.

Fromm's Impact on Interpersonal Psychoanalysis: A Well Kept Secret

Erich Fromm was one of the founders of the William Alanson White Institute in New York City and an important contributor to the development of the interpersonal approach to psychoanalysis. Many of Fromm's ideas about psychoanalysis have found their way into the mainstream of analytic thinking. Much of what he taught in supervision and in his lectures had to do with the role of the analyst, the analyst's use of himself in the analytic process and the necessity that the analyst experience what his patient is experiencing. From did not necessarily use terms like projective identification but his understanding presaged much of what analysts talk about today. Fromm himself did not write much about clinical practice. And while he repeatedly expressed his respect for Freud he was explicit in his disagreements. Fromm rejected the notion of the analyst as a blank mirror. Instead, analysis requires a passionate wish for truth both in the analysand and the analyst. Fromm calls this passion biophilic, implying that the unconscious does not only harbor destructive drives that need to be tamed; it also harbors creative drives which, while also irrational, are constructive and need be liberated through the analysis.

Leaving chastity behind: The analyst's use of her sexual response.

Leaving chastity behind: The analyst's use of her sexual response.

Leaving chastity behind: The analyst's use of her sexual response.

Leaving chastity behind: The analyst's use of her sexual response.

Fear in the Countertransference and the Mutuality of Safety

Fear in the countertransference, and its consequent need for safety, is often ignored in analysis. Yet it helps analysts understand themselves, their patients and the interactive process that triggers these reactions. From a two-person relational perspective, I discuss transactions that arouse mild and more intense fearfulness. My thesis is that not only is fear-arousal an interpersonal event, but so is its relief. I contend analyst and patient together create a danger/safety balance that enables each to profitably pursue their analytic mission. Reciprocity and responsibility are essential aspects of the two-person endeavor in analytic work. Fear in the countertransference often results from induction and projective identification, commingled with personal anxieties and fantasies. I discuss here projective identification as both a communication and an enactment. Two clinical vignettes illustrate the interpersonal transactions that elicit the analyst's fear as well as the dyad's attempts to alleviate it. Conjoint regulation and the analyst's use of self-disclosure provide examples of techniques that help recalibrate the danger/safety balance. The analyst's fearfulness demonstrates vulnerability to and interdependence with the patient. Understanding and working through of fear in the countertransference facilitates the analytic process.

Inference and Evidence in the Clinical Situation: the Analyst's uSe of the Self

Inference and Evidence in the Clinical Situation: the Analyst's uSe of the Self

The analyst's use of self, self-disclosure, and enhanced integration.

The analyst's use of self, self-disclosure, and enhanced integration.

The analyst's use of self, self-disclosure, and enhanced integration.

The analyst's use of self, self-disclosure, and enhanced integration.

The analyst's use of self, self-disclosure, and enhanced integration.

The analyst's use of self, self-disclosure, and enhanced integration.

The Concept of Interpretive Action

Interpretive action is understood as the analyst's use of action (other than verbally symbolic speech) to convey to the analysand specific aspects of the analyst's understanding of the transference-countertransference which cannot at that juncture in the analysis be conveyed by the semantic content of words alone. An interpretation-in-action accrues its specific symbolic meaning from the experiential context of the analytic intersubjectivity in which it is generated. The understanding of the transference-counter-transference conveyed by the analyst's interpretive action must simultaneously be silently formulated in words by the analyst. Three clinical vignettes are presented which illustrate different forms of interpretation-in-action.

The Analyst’s Use of Humor

The author presents two clinical vignettes involving the deliberate use of humor by the analyst, which appeared to help foster an atmosphere that promoted the analytic process. It is suggested that the analyst's use of humor conveyed information about his mental state and his attitude toward the patient which disconfirmed inhibiting expectations and thus increased the patient's ability to be self-reflective and to face painful affects. The potentially deleterious effects of humorlessness in the analyst are also discussed.

The Analyst's Use of Clinical Data, and other Issues of Confidentiality

In addition to reviewing and expanding on issues involved on the subject of confidentiality, this paper focuses on the vicissitudes of asking a patient's permission to use clinical material in public and other reports.

A Female Analyst's Use of Desire

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsGail Wittkin-SassoGail Wittkin-Sasso, Ph.D., adjunct faculty, Lehman College, C.U.N.Y.; certificate in psychoanalysis, Westchester Center for the Study of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, associate editor, The Psychoanalyst.

Actions Speak Louder

Case material is presented from three analyses in which dramatic, unexpected movements by patients on the couch dominated the analytic hours for long periods of time. The psychoanalytic literature pertinent to this area of acting in is reviewed, and some formulations regarding the shift from verbalization to motor behavior are presented. These center on the proposition that the patients had identified with aggressor parents who regarded actions, not words, as the ultimate conveyers of reality. The analyst's use of countertransference responses as clues to the understanding of the actions is discussed.

When the Analyst is Chronically Ill or Dying

This is a study of the effects on the patient, the analyst, and the analytic process of chronic life-threatening illness in the analyst. The vicissitudes of the aggressive drive and its derivatives within the patient are studied in most detail. The analyst's use of denial and isolation, as well as his narcissistic withdrawal in such circumstances, is also illustrated. In addition, some of the practical technical issues which arise are discussed.

Working with a Borderline Patient

A summary of the treatment of a borderline patient illustrates (I) that psychoanalytic therapy with such patients is feasible within the framework of the structural hypothesis and (2) that the results of such treatment are influenced materially by the analyst's use of his emotional responses to the patient and her production.

Dynamic Factors in Corporate Profits

CORPORATE PROFITS in the aggregate have been subjected to increasing scrutiny in the past year as doubts regarding their underlying strength have multiplied. These doubts pertain both to the extent of profit recovery in the current business expansion and the long-term growth potential. Recent experience justifies these doubts. From 1955 to 1961 reported profits rose less than 3% while Gross National Product increased 31%. Corporate profits fluctuated during these six years in conformity with the business cycle, but displayed little upward trend, as would be expected in a growing economy. We should ask whether the improved profit picture forecast for 1962 indicates an upward shift in corporate profits for the next several years, or merely a cyclical rise above the virtually level 1955-1961 trend. If the former hypothesis is correct, investors have been justified in bidding up stock prices 70% since 1955 in anticipation of higher profits in the mid-1960's.' However, if corporate profits are benefiting only from a cyclical recovery in the economy, stock prices could be considered high in relation to future earnings and vulnerable to downward correction. In this paper the authors seek to identify behavior patterns in corporate profit trends and discover some of the key economic factors which determine cyclical and long-term trends. The analysis is by no means exhaustive, but it is hoped that it will aid understanding of the dynamic factors at work and provide a forecasting tool for the analyst's own use.

AN INVESTMENT ANALYSIS APPROACH TO STOCK LIFE INSURANCE COMPANIES*

Little has been written to guide investors in their quest to select common stocks issued by life insurance companies offering investment potential. This study sets forth an outline covering the major areas for analysis and applies the outline to the industry. Emphasis is given to those unique features resulting from the industry structure. The approach covers five sectors, industry life cycle, the company's position within the industry, earnings and dividends, financial statements, and management. First, the life insurance industry's life cycle was examined to determine its profitability for investors. After establishing the growth-phase characteristics of this industry, the other areas were presented to disclose what information was available and how to interpret these facts. Within the company, home office, and field force qualities were investigated to show which ones held promise of future profitability. The competiitively superior companies tend to be the life corporations that make the earliest and greatest use of the favorable industry trends. In the presentation of earnings and dividends, two characteristics were disclosed, the consistently low pay-out ratio and the general tendency to distribute stock dividends. To approximate the future long-run earnings for any life company, the past record for eleven years should be studied, 1945 through 1955. This is a representative cyclical period for the industry. Company financial statements offer quantitative facts to support the judgments. The company's annual report to owners, or to policyholders, emphasizes the management's viewpoint. However, it is the annual statements filed with the state authorities that contains carefully checked information, ready for the analyst's use. A cautious study of the assets and the liabilities is necessary, for the life company must be approached through its balance sheet. Next, the management to be evaluated include the directors, com-