Theodore J. Jacobs

On countertransference enactments.

This communication focuses on the relation of countertransference to psychoanalytic technique, calling attention not to the more obvious forms of countertransference that have been commented on by previous writers on the subject, but to its subtler ones. Often well camouflaged within the framework of traditional, time-tested techniques this aspect of countertransference may attach itself to our way of listening and thinking about patients, to our efforts at interpretation, to the process of working through, or to the complex issue of termination. Less recognizable than its more boisterous counter-part und in some respects less tangible, this side of the problem of countertransference is no less important. For it is precisely those subtle, often scarcely visible countertransference reactions, so easily rationalized as parts of our standard operating procedures and so easily overlooked, that may in the end have the greatest impact on our analytic work.

Posture, Gesture, and Movement in the Analyst: Cues to Interpretation and Countertransference

ROM ITS EARLIEST DAYS, PSYCHOANALYSIS has been interested in the nonverbal as well as the verbal aspects of human comF munication, As a keen clinical observer, Freud (Breuer & Freud, 1893) was well aware of the way in which facial and bodily movements could convey unconscious mental attitudes. Readers will remember the graphic description of his first meeting with Frau Emmy Von N., written with the novelist’s eye for evocative detail:

Secrets, alliances, and family fictions: some psychoanalytic observations.

I have tried in this paper to show the role that personal secrets, family secrets, and secret alliances within a family can play in individual psychology. Analysis of them has shown that such conscious, often closely guarded secrets may conceal and resonate with other, more deeply repressed secrets and with central conflicts in the personality. Secretive phenomena within families may also have a significant impact on various ego functions, on intellectual growth and problems of learning, and on the development and consistency of the superego. I have also attempted to show that secrets and unconscious collusions may develop, not only as an important aspect of the patients relations to others, but in the analytic situation as well. Representing important dynamic forces that resonate between patient and analyst, such secrets can have a significant impact on the course and outcome of the analysis itself.

On the adolescent neurosis.

The author discusses the lifelong impact of adolescence in shaping the adult psyche. Some patients may appear to be as influenced by conflicts of adolescence and the individual solutions arrived at during this period as they are by conflicts and solutions of the oedipal phase, the author maintains. The subphases of early, middle, and late adolescence are discussed both in terms of a review of the psychoanalytic literature and of representative works of literary fiction. Illustrative clinical vignettes are presented as well.

Insights, epiphanies, and working through: on healing, self-healing, and creativity in the writer and the analyst.

The author discusses similarities and differences between the way that writers and psychoanalysts go about their respective tasks. He raises questions about the role of creativity and its sources in both these vocations. He illustrates his points by relating a brief clinical vignette from his work with a patient who was a writer, and by sharing the description of a creative story he wrote many years before becoming an analyst. After presenting a story by James Joyce as also illustrative of these themes, the author concludes by comparing and contrasting the inner experiences of the writer and the analyst.

Psychoanalysis of the young adult: theory and technique

i i E o i ) o K E JA(:OBS BEGAN II~E PANEL with ;I description of a T twenty-three-year-old patient who sought treatment because of neurotic fears, obsessional worries, and inability to clioose an independent way of life. This patient, the Wolf hfan, WIS one of the many young adults and late adolescents whom Freud treated. In essence, their clinical niaterial provided the foundation for the theory and technique of ~~syclioatialysis. Nonetheless, as Jacobs pointed out, little specific attention lias been directed to the problems of the young adult (18-25) a s distinct from those of tlie adolescent or niatiire adult. This pmel is the first in the history of the Anierican 1’sycho;in;ilytic Associ;ition to do so. Jacobs then raised several questions for the panelists to consider: Arc ;here therapeutically relevant subphases within yoiing adulthood? What are the significant differences, if any, faced by men and women in this age group? How do current societal and cultural issues influence young ;idults as they interact with the compromise forniations that are solutions to internal conflicts? .Jacobs spoke of the developmental tasks of the young atlult-the consolidation of ego capacities that is required for life and career decisions, referring to Adatto’s conceptualization of tlie changes that take place during this period: ( 1) movement from tlie narcissistic selfinvolvement of adolescence to more intimate and enduring object relations; (2) integration of sexual development with other pei-sonality changes, with the firm establishment of sexu;il identity, and tlie formation of an irreversible sexlliil position; (3) development of greater breadth of ego f~~rictions with behavior less governed by conflict ( a s adolescent conflicts are reduced in intensity) iitid more energy amiilable for new interests and activities, with greater tolerance of frustration (character, as we liave come to understand that term, being

REVIEW OF “THE METAPSYCHOLOGY OF THE ANALYST,” BY ROBERT FLIESS

Of all the changes that have taken place in psychoanalysis in the past three decades, arguably the greatest has been the radical shift that has occurred in our view of the contribution that the analyst’s psychology makes to the psychoanalytic process. Few endeavors more emphatically underscore both the enormous advances that have been made in this area, and the tendency of contemporary views of the analyst’s role to ignore the insights of our predecessors, than rereading Robert Fliess’s classic 1942 paper, “The Metapsychology of the Analyst.” Perhaps nothing better illustrates the gulf that separates modern thinking from that of Fliess and his contemporaries than the opening sentences of Fliess’s paper, which make clear that the analyst’s psychology, while interesting to study, was not considered a source of difficulty: “Of the two persons involved in the analytic situation,” he writes, “one, customarily not considered a problem, is the object of this brief metapsychologic study.” He then follows this with the statement that “while [in analysis] . . . the patient . . . moves towards becoming truly an individual, the analyst remains from beginning to end what he always is while at work: essentially a ‘categorical person’” (p. 679).1 By categorical, Fliess means, essentially,

James Joyce and Molly Bloom: reflections on their relationship.

The relationship between James Joyce and his memorable creation, Molly Bloom, is explored in relation to Joyces remarkable creativity and various factors that may have contributed to it. A character forged primarily out of Joyces perceptions of his wife Nora and memories of his mother, Molly also contains aspects of Joyces warded-off and wished-for self-representation. A focus on both biographical and dynamic contributions to the creation of Molly helps to illuminate aspects of Joyces psychology.

AN ANNIVERSARY REACTION IN A FOUR-YEAR-OLD CHILD

The anniversary reaction is a well-known phenomenon. Although in recent years few contributions dealing with this aspect of unconscious mental functioning have appeared in our journals, the older literature contains a sizable number of articles dealing with various aspects of this intriguing topic (Haesler 1986; Hull, Lane, and Gibbons 1993; Mintz 1971; Pollock 1971; Seitz 1975; Wallerstein 1967). In searching the literature, I have not come across mention of an anniversary reaction in a young child. Some of the above-noted authors, as well as others, have observed that emotional trauma in childhood can give rise later in life to anniversary reactions related to those childhood experiences (Hull, Lane, and Gibbons 1993; Pollock 1971; Seitz 1975). The occurrence of an anniversary reaction in early childhood, however, has not to my knowledge been described. In this brief communication, I will offer an example of what I believe is an example of just such a reaction. Some colleagues may question whether a child of four, with her comparatively immature brain, is capable of processing the passage of time in such a way as to give rise to a true anniversary reaction. I myself have had questions about that very issue. Since neither I nor the several experienced child analysts with whom I have discussed this question have been able to arrive at a satisfactory alternative explanation of the phenomenon that I will describe,

Discussion of the Universal Analogy: The Complementary Visions of Poetry and Psychoanalysis by Eugene Mahon

In this discussion of Eugene Mahons excellent paper, I focus on his concept of inwardness, its role in society, and its expression in poetry and psychoanalysis. I also discuss Mahons view of the psychological appeal of poetry and compare the creative processes in the poet and the analyst.