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Two studies examined nonconscious transference in social perception, defined as inferences about a new person based on a subliminally triggered significant-other representation (e.g., S. M. Andersen & S. W. Cole, 1990). In a nomothetic experimental paradigm involving idiographic stimuli, participants believed they were playing a computer game with another participant while exposed to subliminal descriptors from either their own, or a yoked participant's, significant other. In an impression-rating task, participants were more likely to infer that their 'game partner' had significant-other features not subliminally presented when the subliminal cues described their own, rather than a yoked participant's, significant other. Another control condition in Study 1 ruled out self-generation effects. A subliminality check confirmed that stimuli were nonconscious. Hence, subliminal activation of significant-other representations and nonconscious transference occur.

Research has shown that the activation and application of a significant-other representation to a new person, or transference, occurs in everyday social perception (S. M. Andersen & A. Baum, 1994; S. M. Andersen & S. W. Cole, 1990). Using a combined idiographic and nomothetic experimental paradigm, two studies examined the role of chronic accessibility of significant-other representations in transference. After learning about 4 fictional people, 1 of whom resembled a significant other, participants' recognition memory was assessed. Both studies showed greater false-positive memory in the significant-other condition, relative to control, even in the absence of priming. Study 2 showed that although the effect was greater when the significant-other representation was concretely applicable to the target information, it occurred even when no such applicability was present. Results implicate the chronic accessibility of significant-other representations in transference.

Davies (this issue) recasts the pathologizing/heteronormative “positive and negative” Oedipus complex into a model where “primary and secondary” oedipal configurations constitute the kaleidoscope of sensual/erotic experience—for heterosexually and homosexually developing individuals. Further complexity could include nontraditional (e.g., lesbian-/gay-parented) families and the development of their children. If there is no genital difference between parents, no clear gender-role divide—and the (relational) triangle is only the beginning—how do we conceptualize the development of these children, who are likely to be heterosexual with a “typical” gender identity? Davies points us toward the multiplicity inherent in the disowned unconscious longings (and communications) of any parent—or in Laplanche’s terms, the plurality contained in the adult and its elaboration in the “enigmatic message” to the child. Such enigmatic communications, in addition to more lateral and cultural influences, may constitute the unconscious substrate (if not the cause) of fluid, complex gender and erotic subjectivities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the growing awareness of the impact of AIDS on seronegative gay men comes a need for clinicians to respond effectively to this population's unique issues. Seronegative gay male therapists, however, often face the same unaddressed issues shared by their clients. Therapy groups focusing on the concerns of uninfected gay men are relatively new, and therefore few of the seronegative gay male therapists facilitating these groups have had a forum for examining their own experiences as uninfected survivors of the epidemic. Consequently, these clinicians must navigate various countertransference feelings (e.g., overidentification with clients) as they interpret group issues that match their own concerns (e.g., seroconversion fears, survivor guilt). Using their personal experiences as cotherapists of time-limited groups for seronegative gay men, the authors outline identification and group-process issues, and offer strategies for managing and using countertransference reactions to benefit clients in this work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]