ABSTRACT
Herbert Rosenfeld comments on the evolution of the analytic relationship. He focuses on the patient’s changing perception of the analyst, and he distinguishes between various types of projective identification. Rosenfeld highlights the importance of showing the patient healthy aspects and areas of functioning, which can contribute to the analytic process, and counsels against an all-absorbing concentration on transference. This is all the more important with psychotic patients, who might misunderstand transference-related interpretations. As far as interpretation of negative transference is concerned the crucial point for the analyst is to reach the patient. The author discusses clinical case material to show how, by monitoring responses to interpretation, one may gauge whether the patient manages to accept and tolerate it. It is also fundamental to pick up on the initial appearance of depressive anxieties, remembering that the patient is terrorized by them, but without letting oneself be swept up by this same terror.
