The grandparent syndrome: a case study

"The Grandparent Syndrome" was first defined by Rappaport in 1956 as "the development of detrimental character traits brought on by the identification with a grandparent ... " This paper first reviews some of the various descriptions in the analytic and anthropologic literature of the significance of grandparents in the human psyche and in culture in general. Then, the analytic treatment of a young man with an unconscious identification with his grandmother is described. He has a particular type of identification, precipitated by melancholia in childhood, which lasted well into his adult life. In the treatment the effects of the deeply entrenched identification are brought to light and the parental and grandparental transference elements which develop are analyzed over a six-year period. The difficult analysis of the patient's negative therapeutic reaction, which was intensified by his unconscious guilt, is discussed. There is a 15 and 20-yearfollow-up of the analysis when the patient, an only child, returns to the analyst to do more analytic work in grieving the death of his parents.