Cues: the perceptual edge of the transference

Abstract

In spite of Freud's recommendation in his postscript to Dora, analysts may neglect, as Schwaber has pointed out, the patient's perception of the analyst's participation in the analytic context. Examination of the patient's experience of the 'external', by attending to the patient's search for and use of perceptual cues, can lead to essential aspects of the patient's intrapsychic life. Beginning with the description of a particular analytic intervention, the author discusses the nature of cues, their origins developmentally, their role in the development of transference and in the generation of a particular form of resistance, and their place in the ongoing clarification of the transference, countertransference and the analyst's technique. The author then contrasts the approach described with positions taken by Langs, Gill and Sandler, and discusses why Freud's recommendations may have been neglected.