ABSTRACT
It often happens that past trauma comes to be re-experienced within the analytic relationship. But for this to be effectively worked through, the patient needs to be able to recover an awareness of the difference between the objective present and the past that is spilling into the present. Sometimes the transference experience can be so like the past as to become in itself traumatic. Illustrations are given to highlight the implications for the patient of either too much incidental similarity in the transference relationship, or deliberate difference, as presented by the analyst.
