Neutrality in the analysis of action-prone adolescents.
An adolescent patient's action during analysis reflects both neurotic conflicts and the developmentally determined task of establishing an integrated self-representation. Concern for the consequences of the action often provokes the analyst to respond, covertly, with interventions intended to change the action through influence rather than understanding. This can lead to a distortion of the analytic process which, in itself, may be an enactment of the developmental conflict. Examination of such interventions reveals a lack of analytic neutrality and an unconscious participation in the patient's neurotic and developmental conflicts. Clinical material from the analyses of two fourteen-year-old girls and a sixteen-year-old boy is presented to illustrate and support this hypothesis.
Chused
J F
JF
Washington Psychoanalytic Institute, Washington, D.C.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal; D005201:Fantasy; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D007207:Individuation; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D010553:Personality Development; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D014167:Transference, Psychology