ABSTRACT
Relational theory was in the air. And the air held harbingers for greatly expanding possible explanations for transference and countertransference, considering a number of one- and two-person relational configurations. R. Greenson attempted to make a distinction between the transference relationship, born of “instinctual frustration and the search for gratification,” and the “working alliance,” the cooperation between the patient’s and analyst’s reasonable, analyzing egos. He also noted that a piece of the “working alliance” was soaked up by the “real relationship,” the patient’s accurate perceptions of the actual qualities and weaknesses of the analyst. Often the tiny but inexorable changes in themselves went unnoticed until, in retrospect, psychoanalysts could observe large changes in their clinical and theoretical sensibilities.
