POSTOEDIPAL TRANSFORMATIONS - LATENCY, ADOLESCENCE, AND PATHOGENESIS

There is a tendency in psychoanalysis to seek ever earlier determinant s of pathology. One effect of this search is to relegate adult memorie s of latency and adolescence to serving mainly a defensive screen func tion. Psychoanalytic material from child and adolescent cases is used in this paper to illuminate postoedipal developmental transformations. These findings are applied to the understanding and technique of work with adults. Alertness to latency elements can affect the timing of i nterpretations, the understanding of neurosogenic factors, and the for ces for health available in the patient's personality. Alertness to ad olescent phenomena highlights the adult patient's difficulty in integr ating adolescent realities with childhood fantasy solutions to preoedi pal and oedipal conflicts. We conclude that no one phase has preeminen ce over others, that earlier is not necessarily more important, and th at there cannot be pure recapitulation, revival, or ''reanimation'' (F reud, 1925) of the past in the present. However, knowledge of the tran sformations appropriate to each phase in the past gives us additional access to the determinants and functions of the patient's pathology in the present, increases the specificity of genetic interpretation, and gives both patient and analyst greater conviction about the accuracy of the essential analytic work of reconstruction.