THE USES OF THE PAST AND THE ACTUALIZATION OF A FAMILY ROMANCE

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.