Transitional phenomena and therapeutic symbiosis

This paper suggests that the analyst (or therapist) can best understand transitional-object phenomena as being tributary to, or consisting in various different facets of, the--for him in his work with patients--more comprehensive realm of therapeutic symobiosis. The author highlights data concerning objects or phenomena which are transitional for both patient and analyst concomitantly. He suggests that the patient's symptoms have become, early in the phase of therapeutic symbiosis, transitional objects for both patient and analyst simultaneously. As with the patient's symptoms, so with his transference images of the analyst: it is suggested that, in order for any effective transference analysis to occur with any patient, whether neurotic, borderline, or psychotic, the analyst must have come to accept at least a transitional-object degree--if not more deeply symbiotic degree--of relatedness with the particular transference image which is holding sway presently in the analysis.