A mind of one's own.

The author argues that in the transference the patient unconsciously identifies the analyst with what he has projected into him, creating what Strachey called an external phantasy object. In the intimate rapport of the analytic session, the analyst tends to identify with these projections as well, which brings him into a relationship with the patient that complements the patient's narcissistic object relationship with him. The analyst's identification with the patient's projections is a type of pathology of his receptivity to the patient that is exacerbated by the patient's skill at producing states of mind in the analyst with which the analyst is supposed to identify. The analyst's ability to distance himself from the patient's projections and therefore to interpret them depends on his having links to his internal objects that survive the patient's projections and unconscious manipulations. Interpretations make the patient aware simultaneously that he and the analyst are separate and that the analyst has a link to internal objects that are not under the patient's control. The latter is a rudimentary oedipal situation. The author argues that these two 'awarenesses' are really the same, and that working through the depressive position and working through the oedipal situation are therefore fundamentally the same thing.