ABSTRACT

It will be remembered that we, in common with a number of conservative authors, originally held the view that for various reasons transference interpretations would be dangerous in brief psychotherapy—that they themselves would intensify transference, or cause the transference to become more primitive, or increase dependence, or hasten the onset of the transference neurosis—in any case, that they would tend to make termination difficult and lead in some way or other to an unfavourable outcome; and that in fact our views, based on clinical impression, became ever more radical, until ultimately the hypothesis was made that interpretation of the negative transference was an essential factor in therapy. The examination of the evidence relevant to these and similar hypotheses will occupy a large part of the remainder of this book, and will lead far afield, through problems of methodology, follow-up, and selection criteria, finally to an overall view of the whole nature of this kind of therapy and the place which it holds in the history of psychoanalytic technique.