Bayle, Gérard

Interpretation and Narcissism - 2013.


34

The conditions for establishing the analytic setting are conducive to the inspection of the transference according to the configuration of the analytic site. This allows every possibility for the negativity of the transference to emerge. The analyst can therefore envisage interpreting its manifestations if, and only if, the patient’s narcissism can confront the disillusionment that stems from the interpretation–€loss of control over his omnipotent fantasies, the psychic work of their loss, the work of mourning. Evaluation of the narcissistic solidity depends on the analyst’s conscious evaluations, forms that have emerged from a vaster unconscious whole pertaining to the quality of the links between the foundational transference and the countertransference that responds to it. It is therefore possible to defer an interpretation that would seem to be overwhelmingly self-evident but could be premature in view of the quality of the patient’s narcissism. The author illustrates this with three clinical examples.