ABSTRACT
Donald Meltzer coined the term and first worked out the concept of “the gathering of the transference” (cf. 1967). The concept brings together into a clinically workable form the complex sequence of processes which are loosely alluded to as the development of the transference, or even more vaguely described as the initial phase of the transference. To my best recollection Meltzer was first to show that the gathering of the transference is a long, highly complex and sensitive process, being crucial in giving every analysis a firm basis. Concrete clinical evidence arguing this understanding is discussed in this as well as in the next few chapters.
The gathering of the transference is however thought to immediately trigger off emotional turbulence which most often takes the form of actings both in and out the transference. This chapter describes, almost graphically, a number of unusually intense responses to the gathering of the transference.
The history of the evolution of the transference is argued to be more clearly inscribed in the evolution of “dream-life,” rather than in individual dreams (cf. Meltzer, 1984).
NB: This chapter covers the first year of the analysis of Sophie.
