ABSTRACT
The seventh chapter addresses the relatively recent psychoanalytic interest in the here-and-now. The relational, Kleinian and ego-psychological theorists of the here-and-now share an interest, in spite of their meta-psychological differences, in the analysis of transference and, excepting Gill, in the analysis of present extra-analytic manifestations of conflict (Joseph, 1978, 1989, 2013; Gill, 1979, 1984b; Sandler & Sandler, 1984, 1987, 1994a). For them the analysis of the present comes before and takes priority over genetic interpretation. The critique of regression clarifies that the analysis of the here-and-now is not a superficial activity, that is, a game played with the derivatives of buried infantile mentation, but on the contrary, an engagement at the deepest levels of the present unconscious. The reconstruction of infancy is not an inherently profound activity, but rather a narrative act, which reflects, in form and content, the subject’s immersion in the field.
