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Countertransference

This paper examines countertransference as it is conceptualized and explained in the intersubjective paradigm of psychoanalytic therapy developed by Stolorow, Brandchaft and Atwood (1987). Further, the paper examines several studies which indicate that the intersubjective process as it relates to the production of countertransference may be elicited by group therapy context factors. The findings of these studies are then discussed in terms of their implications for the intersubjective view of psychoanalytic group therapy. The paper begins with an explication of the intersubjective paradigm.

According to Stolorow, Brandchaft and Atwood (1987), the term "countertransference," refers to a therapist/counselor's personal emotional response to a patient based on the therapist's life experiences. In this regard, Peterson and Nisenholz (1987) have stated that, more specifically, the term applies to:

...those situations in which the client's behavior invokes in the counselor [therapist] conflicts relating to unresolved situations in the counselor's life, causing the counselor to respond to the client in an unobjective way. (p.45)

Stolorow, Brandchaft and Atwood (1987) have stated that the effective therapist is one who can separate himself/herself from personal reactions to the patient and view what is going on in therapy in an impersonal way as merely a point of departure for better understanding the patient's psychic reality. A key question here is how the therapist can move from a personal reaction to the impersonal framework which Stolorow et. al. have described? According to the authors, this can be done by adoption of the intersubjective view of psychoanalytic therapy and group therapy.

According to the intersubjective view, both transference (patients' development toward the analyst of attitudes and feelings rooted in past experiences with parental figures) and countertransference are viewed as by-products of intera...

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Countertransference. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 18:05, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1681614.html