ABSTRACT
The analyst must have a theoretical framework with which to conceptualize not only the nature of the relationships between transference figures occupying the analytic stage, but also the matrix within which the transference-countertransference is being generated. Winnicott's conception of the "environment-mother" has greatly enhanced the analytic conception of "the matrix of transference". Consequently, transference is not simply a transferring of one's experience of one's internal objects onto external objects; it is as importantly a transferring of one's experience of the internal environment within which one lives onto the analytic situation. All human experience, including transference-countertransference experience, can be thought of as the outcome of the dialectical interplay of three modes of creating and organizing psychological meaning. This chapter focuses on the ways in which the analyst's interventions must often be directed to the contextual level, or matrix, of transference before it becomes possible to address other interrelated aspects of transference.
