Transference regression and psychoanalytic technique with infantile personalities

This paper describes a particular form of 'silent' regression during the psychoanalytic treatment of infantile personalities (a type of character pathology related to the hysterical personality). This regression is characterized by the development of rapid interchange in the roles enacted in the transference and projected on to the analyst, an apparent 'disconnexion' of the transference material from that dominant when the patient is in non-regressed states, and the intensification of the analyst's counter-transference reactions. The diagnosis and management of these regressive transferences requires a particular interpretive style and strategy outlined in this paper and illustrated with two case vignettes.