A Transformative Concept from Margolis on Contact Function
Here's an illuminating quote from Margolis' (1994) work:
"Making contact and maintaining contact appears in the analysis as a resistance to speaking productively. It is the patient's maneuver to avoid talking about himself. The more the contact function develops, especially in the form of maintaining contact with the analyst, the more it blocks progressive communication, which is necessary for fostering the preoedipal patient's maturational growth. Yet the contact function helps build the narcissistic transference, which also fosters the preoedipal patient's maturational growth."
This quote brilliantly captures the therapeutic paradox at the heart of modern psychoanalysis. Margolis reveals that the same process (contact functioning) simultaneously serves as both resistance AND the path to growth.
Traditional analysis might simply interpret a patient's questions to the analyst as resistance to free association. Margolis shows us something far more sophisticated: these questions are indeed resistance to talking about oneself, yet they're also the only way certain patients can begin forming a relationship with the analyst.
The genius of modern analytic technique lies in recognizing this duality. When narcissistic patients make contact through questions or comments directed at the analyst, they are both avoiding deeper self-disclosure AND making their first tentative steps toward object relatedness.
By joining this process rather than confronting it, the analyst helps build a narcissistic transference – where the analyst is experienced as an extension of the patient rather than a separate person. This narcissistic transference, while seemingly primitive, is actually developmental progress for patients who previously couldn't relate to others at all.
This approach represented a breakthrough in treating patients previously considered "unanalyzable" by creating a developmental bridge between narcissistic isolation and genuine object relatedness – all by recognizing the hidden value in what appears on the surface to be mere resistance.
References:
Margolis, B.D. (1994). The Contact Function of the Ego: Its Role in the Therapy of the Narciss... Mod. Psychoanal., 19:199-210.
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