During the long middle phase, a
transference neurosis emerges that substitutes for the
actual neurosis of the patient and in which the wish for
health comes into direct conflict with the simultaneous
wish to receive emotional gratification from the
analyst. There is a gradual surfacing of unconscious
conflicts; an increased irrational attachment to the
analyst, with regressive and dependent concomitants
of that bond; a developmental return to earlier forms
of relating (sometimes compared to that of mother
and infant); and a repetition of childhood patterns and
recall of traumatic memories through transfer to the
analyst of unresolved libidinal wishes.