Transitional relating and the capacity for play in treatment

Based on an understanding of Winnicott's (1953/1975) notion of transitional relatedness and transitional phenomena as representing the use of play, il lusion, and soothing capacities, I created a novel transitional object earl y memory probe that elicits a qualitative experience of current capacities for transitional relatedness. Working from a set of assumptions first artic ulated by Mayman (1968), early childhood memories are considered psychologi cal reconstructions organized around unconscious object relations that are projected into the structure and content of early memories. It has been pos sible to assess patients' current capacities for transitional relatedness t hrough the guise of past transitional object attachments. Two empirical stu dies (Fowler, Hilsenroth, & Handler, 1995, 1998) have demonstrated that gre ater levels of creative play and fantasy involved in the: patient's memory productions are associated with the patient's greater capacity for transiti onal relatedness as evidenced by greater use of metaphor and use of the the rapist as a soothing illusion. Thus, early memories are linked to self and other object relations structures, as well as to their expression in relati onships-the prototypic transference relationships. This thesis, supported b y empirical findings, is precisely what makes early memories so rich and re vealing of patients' character structure, core conflicts, and potential tra nsference enactments. Two clinical examples provided evidence for their use in complex treatments with adults.