ABSTRACT
A psychiatrist and full member of the Paris Psychoanalytical Society, Bela Grunberger is known for his original and illuminating explorations of the narcissistic dimension in psychoanalytic treatment, demonstrating its importance, challenging as he did so a great number of received ideas. Most patients as we all know from experience quickly settle into the analytic situation, and for a longer or shorter period of the analysis, depending on the case, they talk volubly and easily throughout the sessions. The analytic situation offers an intermediate position, which is what characterizes analysis and makes it unique. The narcissistic pleasure that the patient derives from the analytic situation is precisely the condition needed for that situation to become firmly established and the therapy to be successful, for the fate of the two are inexorably linked. In the case of 'negative transference' the analytic situation will be shielded from this attitude and will remain positively invested.
