ABSTRACT
In the course of some psychoanalytic treatments, the analyst may find themselves puzzling over where the patient's transference lies. Often, this is a situation where the patient talks primarily about current external situations in which they are depressed, angry, or anxious. These situational symptom-based scenarios invite the analyst to ignore the transference and focus on everything but the relationship in the consulting room. The clinical unfolding of analytic contact includes a valued place for the total transference situation, the complete counter-transference, and both genetic and extra-transference states. Consistent examination of transference, counter-transference, and projective identification cycles can help to keep analytic contact within reach and eventually established in a firm enough manner for the successful resolution of unconscious conflict. Discovering the paranoid or depressive function of the counter-transference feelings and phantasies the analyst is struggling with can provide more of a compass to determine what therapeutic direction to take.
