ds but an unrealistic picture of the therapist as human being. It further reinforces the picture of the therapist as a power figure, which in Heller's view limits the validity of any explanation of "therapist activity" (i.e., behavior).
Heller distinguishes the objective therapy modality from the classical to the degree it "focuses upon the characteristic problems of the client and their impact upon the feelings of the therapist" rather than on the "pathological or neurotic contributions" of a therapist who has not sufficiently distanced himself from the emotional state of the patient. In other words, the classical view of transference is absorbed, and countertransference is perceived in terms of the therapist's self-observed, self-conscious emotional response to closely observed client behavior, and always within the context of appropriate therapist intervention. Heller's critique of the objective view is that it "provides more of an interpersonal outlook on psychotherapy while not truly recognizing the more individual contributions of the therapist." This view is consistent with Fromm-Reichmann's citing the undoubted presence of reciprocal transference of doctor and patient in the therapy relationship, along with her remark that Freud's doctrine of the sexual/Oedipal origin of all neuroses has been overtaken by subsequent therapy study.
Now Heller's focus is on the power ra
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