Paths of the countertransference in the analyst—clinical examples of working through

Abstract

ABSTRACTToday the importance of working through the analyst’s countertransference is stressed throughout all different schools of psychoanalysis. This article aims to make the microprocesses more transparent regarding the transformations of transference and countertransference, from the beginning of the anchoring of a projection in the analyst up to the re-internalization of a transformed projection in the patient. This is introduced by a survey of the history of two central terms: Projective Identification (on the side of the patient) and Countertransference (coming from the side of the analyst). How the analyst is also a “do-er” and how this fits in with the projective identifications of the patient is a newer development in psychoanalysis and is the main subject of this paper. Alongside the clinical material shown is described what the patient triggers in the analyst with his projections, and how the analyst manages to work through his countertransference where the patient becomes a temporary object, connecting with objects of the analyst until—if all goes well—the analyst manages to transform the projection of the patient while “triangulating with his inner understanding parents”.