This article presents a technique and attitude for dealing with problem or difficult patients, utilizing concepts generated from psychoanalysis for use in settings or contexts that are nonpsychoanalytic. The concepts of transference, counter-transference, resistance, and interpretation of transference are defined for use in nonanalytic contexts. The process of formulation of interpretations, and modes of patient response in nonanalytic contexts are discussed and illustrated with clinical examples. The possible benefits and limitations of this way of relating to problem patients are also discussed from clinical and theoretical perspectives.
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