TRANSFERENCE, EMP A THY AND TELE, THE ROLE OF THE PSYCHODRAMATIST AS COMPARED WITH THE ROLE OF THE PSYCHOANALYST

Abstract

The differences between the role of the psychodramatist and that of the psychoanalyst are not only due to differences in temperament but reflect the difference in the technical modes of relating to their patients during the thera- peutic process.

The psychoanalyst attempts to assume a neutral, emotionally cool attitude toward his patient-the attitude of the impersonal scientific observer and interpreter. On the basis of this attitude, which is imperative to him, he hardly dares to be himself. Nevertheless, he becomes the target of highly emotional transferences which the patient gradually attaches to him over a long period of treatment. He may for instance covertly transfer the image of his father to the psychoanalyst. The patient's ensuing dependence on the analyst, called "transference neurosis" by Freud, must then be resolved by means of a painstaking working through of the symptoms and original in- fantile patterns, now insidiously "acted out" in this new derangement of the patient. The prolonged dual situation often gives rise to so-called counter- transferences from the psychoanalyst to the patient.