ABSTRACT
Ralph Greenson was at first people's loved and respected teacher and supervisor, and subsequently their loved and respected friend and colleague. An important reason for the love and respect he engendered, not just in people but in so many people, was the open-minded, tolerant, lively spirit with which he engaged psychoanalytic ideas, whether old or new. Greenson defines the positive transference as love in any of its forms, the nonsexual, nonromantic, mild forms of which he sees as contributing to the working alliance. Turning to the negative transference, according to Greenson, it is based upon hate in any of its various forms. It is always present, though often defended against, in the analysis; when it is not uncovered it is the result of the analyst's collusion with the patient's defenses, and most commonly results in a stalemated analysis. Greenson employs the various aspects of the tripartite model in a similar fashion.
