M. Viederman, THE USES OF THE PAST AND THE ACTUALIZATION OF A FAMILY ROMANCE, Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 42(2), 1994, pp. 469-489
This paper elaborates an aspect of the therapeutic experience of analy
sis that pertains to the examination of the past as it influences a pa
tient's view of his self-worth and relationship to the world. It is co
mplementary to the usual view of psychoanalytic process that involves
analysis of transference resistance, revelation of transference, and t
he discovery of its genetic roots. I propose an additional therapeutic
aspect of the reexperience of the past in which the changed represent
ation of patient as child is validated by a new object, the analyst, w
ho is experienced as a benevolent witness to the past and as a benevol
ent presence in the past, thereby consolidating the change and influen
cing the patient's adult self-representation. This therapeutic effect
is more likely to be of significance in patients who have experienced
parental loss or significant deprivation in childhood. Segments of the
analysis of a patient illustrate this point. The patient described ''
listening to himself with compassion for the child he had been'' and b
eing listened to by me in the same way. He became thereby ''tolerant a
nd empathetic with the child he had been.'' The more general implicati
ons of this as a vehicle for change in psychoanalysis are discussed. O
f ancillary interest was the patient's research into his past and ulti
mately his actualization of a family romance fantasy with a particular
ironic twist.