ABSTRACT
The reconstruction is achieved by various interrelated interpretive means: thematic revision, filling in, recontextualization and reduction, and reassessment. Accounts of the present are reconstructions in the same way as accounts of the past, as described, except that they feature acts of perceiving rather than remembering. Reconstructions of the infantile past and the transferential present are interdependent. Some reconstructions led from mother-transference on to father-transference and then back to mother. Accordingly, the reconstruction, like its narrative predecessor, is always subject to change. That the analysand reacts in illuminating ways to the analyst’s reconstructions of both the and the infantile past shows, not that those reconstructions are the only ones or the best ones possible, but merely that they are serving well as guides to the analysand. In response to these reconstructions, the analysand became better able to recognize and acknowledge his experiencing the analyst as concerned, responsive, and helpful.
