Superego transformations through the analyst's capacity for reverie

The author discusses the application of certain Kleinian and Bionian principles to psychoanalytic work with patients who suffer from symptoms arising out of pathological superego functioning. Clinical vignettes are presented to demonstrate how the analyst's willingness to employ reverie, and to move from conviction-based interpretations to more open and tentative ones, can help such patients to change maladaptive behavioral patterns that may have stemmed from early interactions with an unavailable or nonreceptive Other.