Imprisoned Pain and Its Transformation

In this chapter Anne Alvarez describes how supervision with Sydney Klein played a decisive part in transforming her understanding of the importance of the grammar of interpretation—that not all interpretations have to unmask hidden desires on the negative side but rather can help the evolving process of growth and understanding. This is particularly important in borderline patients in whom such unmasking interpretations may be ego-depleting in that they do not take into account the immediate meaning of the child’s communication.