The Unobjectionable Part of the Transference

Abstract

Even those aspects of transference which initially favor the analytic process and seem to have the least connection with resistance do become integral parts of the transference neurosis and contribute massively to some of the most subtle difficulties in the process, especially in its resolution. These phenomena are, by their very appearance of rationality and cooperation, all the more difficult to bring under analytic scrutiny. They operate as resistances not only to the analysis of preoedipal conflicts, but even more effectively in the case of neurotic disorders centered on inadequate resolution of oedipal conflicts, i.e., in the so-called classical neurosis, "the case of the ideal analytic patient." I suggest, therefore, that the appearance of the "unobjectionable component" be regarded not only as a welcome manifestation of certain conflict-free psychic elements, but also as the manifest resultant of a complex web of unconscious conflicts which must be, and are capable of being, sought for and described. Further, that their analysis may be facilitated by the use of a process analogous to that employed in the analysis of dreams, particularly with respect to secondary revision. Finally, I have emphasized that these aspects of transference, which we are tempted to explain, and in effect dismiss, by reductionist references to early development, be regarded rather as the complex resultant of a prolonged historical experience, and that they be so interpreted.

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