Intervening Where Your Patient is: A Modern Psychoanalytic Guide for Establishing and Building the Narcissistic Transference

By Jacqueline M.Swensen, Ph.D.

As the father of modern psychoanalysis, Hyman Spotnitz's primary objective was to cure schizophrenia, the techniques he developed can be effective with any patient. Because his writings were dense, and often lacking in sufficient examples, however, they leave a great deal open for interpretation. This paper is a guide for beginning modern psychoanalysts to help them integrate Spotnitz's theories and techniques into practice in order to establish and build the narcissistic transference. The chapters devoted to theory include: a review of the literature; a discussion of narcissistic transference which covers a definition, the value of working with it, the regression or fixation levels and a discussion on narcissistic countertransference. It also includes chapters on following the contact functioning of the patient and Spotnitz's first two priorities of resistance-treatment-destructive and status-quo. The chapters on practical application offer a framework that beginning modern psychoanalysts can use as a baseline while developing their skills. This section also examines: the use of silence; the use of object-oriented questions, their benefits and how to formulate them; and joining techniques, what they are, how to construct them and their various types. 

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