title: Transitional phenomena, projective identification, and the essential ambiguity of the psychoanalytic situation.
abstract: Ambiguity, which is an intrinsic and essential aspect of the psychoanalytic situation, is related to the concepts of transitional phenomena and projective identification. The analyst's feelings of uncertainty that accompany this ambiguity are contrasted with a "pathological certainty." The consequences of the loss of ambiguity and the role of the analyst's countertransference in this process are described.
authors.affiliation: Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston 02114.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Adler
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000786:Anger; D003379:Countertransference; D005260:Female; D005619:Freudian Theory; D006801:Humans; D007062:Identification, Psychological; D009769:Object Attachment; D011385:Projection; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D014167:Transference, Psychology