Some Theoretical And Technical Considerations Concerning The Emergence Of A Symptom Of The Transference Neurosis: An Empirical Study

Abstract

A detailed study was done of the five occurrences of a striking conversion symptom that appeared in the first 400 hours of an analysis. This study focused on the dynamics of the resistances and of the transference to explain why the symptom appeared when it did. It was possible to identify a consistent, repeated pattern of shifts in the resistive dynamics in response to interpretations of resistances that led to the emergence of the symptom. This type of process was viewed as demonstrating the concrete expression of the transference neurosis, distinguishable from the characteristic transferences that are seen moment-to-moment throughout a treatment from beginning to end. The implications of this distinction for the theory of the concept of the transference neurosis have been presented, emphasizing their importance in the clinical setting and for clinical theory.

Cancer Chemoprevention

“…48 Pauling reported that nearly 100 "terminal" cancer patients treated with a daily dose of 10 g of vitamin C survived three or four times longer than similar patients who did not receive this supplement. 49 To test this claim, three double-blind studies were conducted with advanced cancer, the last of them reported in 1985.…”

Conversion Symptoms and Psychoanalysis in a Second Language

“…Meerloo (1959) said "In states of deep regression infantile rhythmic movements can be observed" (p. 77). Gann (1984) presented a patient with a conversion symptom that occurred only on the couch and felt that "the emergence of the symptom followed the interpretation of resistances" (p. 822). Boesky (1982) noted that action may feel more real to a patient than thought or words, "partly because thinking is reversible and action is often irrevocable and final .…”

“…Several summaries of the transference neurosis have been written (Bird, 1972;Kepecs, 1966;Weinshel, 1971). Gann (1984) said:…”

Commentary on Laplanche

“…It is the Freudian discovery, reasserted by Laplanche and Barratt most assiduously, that opens up the possibility of a shift in the psychophysical alignment of dynamic forces that permits the greatest potential for an individual's self-liberation from the inevitable, multilevel constrictions of pathological compromise and repetition-compulsivity (Barratt 2019). From a different angle, this corresponds to the arguments for a reclaiming of the importance of the differentiated conceptions and roles of the transference(s) and the transference neurosis in analytic treatments, which are beyond the scope of this discussion, though in concert with and dependent on the free association method (see Gann 1984;Bird 1972).…”