Countertransference

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
As analysis developed, transference, at first considered a major obstacle in treatment, came to be seen as the fulcrum on which the psychoanalytic situation rests. Similarly, countertransference, first seen as a neurotic disturbance in the psychoanalyst, preventing him from getting a clear and objective view of the patient, is now increasingly recognized as a most important source of information about the patient as well as a major element of the interaction between patient and analyst. In her pioneering paper on the subject, Paula Heimann drew attention to the fact that, though not recognized as such, countertransference had always been a guide in psychoanalytical work. She suggested that Sigmund Freud's discovery of resistance was based on his countertransference, his feeling that he was meeting a resistant force in the patient. The view of countertransference as a function of the patient's personality is not universally accepted.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: