ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author presents the case of Holly. She discusses the multiple transference meanings inherent in both the chronic and discreet enactments that occur between Holly and her therapist. Karen Martin’s description of her work with Holly has a biphasic before-and-after-the-enactment quality that the author think often characterizes our retrospective analysis of a lengthy treatment process. Martin beautifully describes the disregulated deadened state in which her patient entered treatment and which plagued them from time to time throughout their work together. Martin’s work with Holly conforms to a paradigm frequently encountered with patients who have suffered severe trauma or loss during their childhood years. In Holly’s work with Martin, her desperate attachment to a negative maternal object occupies center stage. Far from being “egregious,” Martin’s earlier confrontational “advice” might have signaled, for the patient, an emotional availability that laid the groundwork for the later reorganizing encounter.
