Cognitive Therapy's Assimilation of Countertransference: a Psychodynamic Perspective

Abstract

Increasingly, cognitive therapy (CT) authors are paying attention to understanding and managing countertransference reactions. This paper critically discusses the recent assimilation of countertransference theory and technique evident in the literature. It begins by examining the factors responsible for CT's interest in countertransference, before going on to discuss the cognitive conceptualization of countertransference. Case material is used to illustrate parallels between schema‐focused CT and relational psychoanalytic models. However, despite manifest similarities, it is argued that CT's rejection of the dynamic unconscious means that the respective approaches to how countertransference is understood and worked with are essentially incompatible. The psychoanalytic theory of countertransference is underpinned by a model of mind and associated therapeutic stance, the analytic attitude, which differs fundamentally from the therapeutic stance of CT. The paper concludes with a discussion of a published cognitive case study (Ellis, 2001), which is used to illustrate inherent limitations in the cognitive approach to countertransference.