ABSTRACT
Kris (1956) describes some of the characteristics of the “good hour” in analysis. He states that the insight achieved during the good hour depends heavily on the integrative functions of the patient's ego. Gaining insight always has an infantile prototype, usually of an oral nature, which determines the state of the transference during the good hour. Thus, the patient relives certain aspects of infantile experience during the good hour, usually involving fantasies of nursing. The infantile prototype, and hence the state of the transference, may be negative, and the good hour may begin with a negativism that reflects this early experience. Kris feels that a good hour is always the result of previous analytic work, during which countercathectic energies and energies attached to repression have been set free. An intrapsychic reorganization takes place and these freed energies are placed at the disposal of the ego in a neutralized form. Kris emphasizes that transformed aggressive energy plays a specific and crucial role in the ego integration that occurs during insight. Finally, he describes three aspects of ego functioning, which usually are evident during the good hour: 1) the patient's ego engages in a temporary and partial regression, but maintains the ability to reassert control at the point that an interpretation is reached; 2) when an interpretation is offered, the patient's ego expands its function to include objective self-observation; 3) there is control over the discharge of affects, with specific affective experiences often being attached to a childhood memory that emerges during the good hour.
