ABSTRACT
The road to the unconscious is of course in the patient, and the specific patient's variables are in fact at each moment the in-session conditions with which the therapist and patient have to work. This calls for the therapist's selection in-session consequences that are welcomed and that are taken as indicating therapeutic change and a growing working alliance. All ISTDP techniques can be applied in the realistic and/or transference relationship with the therapist, in the realistic and/or transference relationship with persons in the current, or in the relationship with important persons from the past. Undoing the patient's identification with his superego is thus crucial and an important part of each ISTDP therapy is thus aimed at helping the patient to separate his ego and superego parts. Working in the relationship with the therapist can mean working in the realistic relationship with the therapist or working in the transference with the therapist.
