The Concept of Countertransference
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The concept of countertransference has recently undergone a period of revision and reorganization. Within psychodynamic theory countertransference originally referred to the analyst'sunconscious response to the patient. As such, it was assumed to have negative effects on the therapeutic relationship. A broader definition of countertransference that embraces the analyst's total unconscious and conscious response to the patient has achieved wide, but not universal, acceptance within the psychoanalytic community. This alteration in the view of countertransference has stimulated controversy about both its theoretical structure and its place within therapy. Under the old form of definition, the countertransference is essentially the analyst's problem, to be dealt with in his or her own analysis. Under the new view, the countertransference can itself constitute a tool for therapy. Freud (1910) described countertransference as consisting of inappropriate reactions of the analyst stemming from his or her own unresolved conflicts. Naturally, psychotherapists can experience their own conflicts and confusions, both within the therapeutic milieu and outside of it. Countertransference, under the original Freudian formulation, includes the analyst's irrational thoughts and reactions that occur in more or less direct response to the patient. He called those reactions "counter" transference because they involve the projection on to the patient of feelings and wishes from the
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te to the real person as his patient" (McDougall, 1986, p. 254).
From the perspective of classical psychoanalytic theory, then, countertransference reactions consist in the conflicts within the therapist that have not been satisfactorily resolved in analysis. The unanalyzed aspects of the therapist's personality realize themselves as prejudices and blind spots that in turn trigger hostility toward the patient, or lack of interest in the patient. The countertransference is one of the reasons a training analysis is recommended (Dosamantes Alperson, 1987).
Increasingly, psychoanalytic theorists have, however, come to see countertransference as having potential utility within psychotherapy. The perception of countertransference as potentially beneficial arises from a partial revision of the Freudian description of countertransference. Rather than seeing countertransference as solely "comprising the deleterious effects of the analyst's own unconscious needs and conflicts on his understanding and technique" (Meyers, 1986, p. 8), they understand countertransference as a more global response of therapist to patient. According to this perspective, countertranference constitutes a total emotional response to the patient t
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Approximate Word count = 2551
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)
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