ERIC BERNE, M . D.

CARMEL-BY -THE-SEA
CALIFORNIA

A Note on "Neurotio Interaction"

By Eric Berne, M.D.

The aspect of complementarity in "neurotic interaction"

has been most fully studied in connection with the mother-child
relationship, as noted by Ehrenwald(l) and others .1Ii picturesque
example, which was enlightening because of its direotness, occurred between two unrelated adults in the writerts practice.
This concerned Art and Belle, two members of a rather
psychiatrically sophisticated psychotherapy group.

Art was dis-

couraged because he felt unable to oontribute anything to the

proceedings of the group.

One day, when they were discussing

"I feel like an empty

his predioament, he remarked dispiritedly:

sack."

At the next meeting, Bel1eremarked:

.

"You know, Art, I've

...,

been thinking about what you06aid last time, and the thought ocaurred to me that if you're a saok, then what you're full of is
b

.m."
Art was an orally deprived person who wanted the therapist

to "feed" him questions, interpretations, and advioe during his

individual sessions, and he presented the same attitude in the
group toward anyone whom he perceived as a maternal figure.
Belle, the oldest woman in the group, was generally perceived as
a motherly person by the other members, and Art had made explicit '
sta~ 'ements

that she affected him that way.

Belle on );ler part

' had said on more than one ocoasion that Art reminded her of her

dispirited father.

Her father had been overly concerned with

his bowel movements, and as a child

Be~le

had had an opportunity

to indulge her interest in his evacuations.

She carried this

interest over to anyone whom she perceived as a paternal figure,

such as the therapist, her husband, and now Art.

In addition,

she had learned to use feces as "ammunition" in her early struggles

with her enema-wielding mother, a form of aggression she still
symbolically clung to both in her treatment and in her everyday
life.

Thus when Art indicated that he wanted to be "filled,"

,

Belle felt she had "somethingt to fill him with.

The tJneurotic

interaction" between them was based on a complementarity of feelings derived from early experiences, and duplicated in their respective attitudes towards the therapist.

This phenomenon has

been described before in various terms and is not noted here because it is unique but becruse of the graphic quality of its expression'
"I feel like an empty sack ."

"If you feel like a sack, it is a sack full of feoes."

This epitomizes the situation in some neurotic relationships, where one party symbolically holds out an empty sack, and
the other party symbolically fills it with whatever substance is
on his or her mind; if the sUbstance is the desired one, both
parties experience temporary gratification and relief; if it is
not, or if nothing 1s forthcoming because of the second party's
retentive tendencies, then the relationship is likely to be disturbed.

More generally,

neurotic relationships are sustained

when one party holds out an incorporative, eliminative, or intrusive (2) attitude, exemplified by the mouth, the buttocks, and
the penis, respectively, and the other party relieves the tension
of both through the expression of a temporarily gratifYing complementary attitude.

The case cited represents a failure in

this mutual gratification, since Art was unconsciously seeking

the breast, and the "empty sack" rejected the sUbstance offered
as a result of Belle's eliminative attitude.
This example serves equally well as a succinct model for
countertransference reactions, or rather "transference-counter...

transference situations, 'f in the psychoanalytic relationship.

Bibliography
1.

Ehrenwald, J.

Patt-- erns of Neurotic Interaction.

'-'

,Am.

U.

PSlohother. , 7:24-40, 1953.

2.

Erikson, E.H.
1950.

Childhood and

Societ~.

New York,

Norton,