Analyst's Countertransference Research Articles

An Accident With the Death Drive and Its Working Through in the Analyst's Countertransference

Working through the different faces and vicissitudes of the death drive in the countertransference, and especially through projective identification, is a very challenging process. A thorough and versatile process of containment and working through of the manifold threatening expressions and influences of the death drive is required, experienced most specifically and deeply in the arena of projective identification. This paper demonstrates how each aspect that unfolds in the analyst's countertransference sheds light on a particular layer of anxiety and internal object relations related to it. The creation of a new meaning to the differing expressions of the death drive gradually lessens the compulsion to repeat and enables a better integration between the life and death drives. This process will be illustrated by a prolonged clinical case that involved intense internal working through of the death drive in the analyst's countertransference.

The Phenomenology and Dynamics of Wealth Shame: Between Moral Responsibility and Moral Masochism.

In an age of striking inequality in wealth, a related phenomenon, wealth shame, has developed. A multidisciplinary exploration of such shame examines its intrapsychic, intersubjective, transgenerational, and sociopolitical roots in the U.S., as well as its multiple functions: as an ethical response to economic disparity (moral responsibility), as a manifestation of a pervasive shame pattern (moral masochism), and as a defense against pleasure, feelings of superiority, and the fear of being envied. Several clinical vignettes illustrate these themes and are followed by reflections on their clinical implications. The psychoanalytic community's conflicted relationship to social class, money, and wealth is also examined. This conflictedness may inform the analyst's countertransference to wealth shame and his or her ability to appreciate the psychic landscapes of class as they present in the consulting room.

When Fathering Fails: Violence, Narcissism, and the Father Function in Ancient Tales and Clinical Analysis.

Manifestations of failures in both symbolic and actual flesh-and-blood fathering reveal the inescapable role played by the father's unconscious transmissions in the ever present triadic matrix. Perelberg's crucial distinction between the murdered narcissistic father and the dead symbolic father suggests the problematic internalizations that fail to uphold the paternal law required for oedipal resolution. Three father-child narratives derived from classical literature and mythology are presented in order to elucidate significant unconscious paternal fantasies pertaining to lethal rivalry and neglect of the child's otherness. These narratives suggest how the father's insufficient management of rivalrous, envious, and murderously aggressive impulses-as well as narcissistic needs that fail to take into account the child's alterity-combine with the child's intrapsychic propensities to constrict triangular space and restrict development. Consequently, unavoidable father-child rivalries, absences, neglect, and desires often make it vital to recover the "missing" paternal function in analytic space. A clinical example illustrates the impact of this absence on the analyst's countertransference.

‘Telepathic’ phenomena and separation anxiety

By discussing a treatment characterized by its difficult ending, the author strives to show the dynamic impact of separation on phenomena that can be seen as ‘telepathic’. Led to develop some inalienable attachment to her analyst in the primary transference, the analysand found herself caught up in the contradiction of her visceral dread of dependency, which compelled her to interrupt the work in progress. She then began to work out her analyst's comings and goings and to run into him in public places, as if to be assured of his immovability. This phenomenon arose with high frequency as the effect of some idealization of the maternal object aiming to deny the spatiotemporal gap. The chance that the experience of rejection via indifference may be repeated also entailed the transferential unfurling of a fantasy involving a double, undifferentiation counterbalancing the lived experience of separation. Furthermore, a ‘telepathic’ dream occurred as confirmation of this twin relationship which illustrates the analysand's refusal to renounce her narcissistic object. Projective identifications, agglutinated ego nuclei along with primitive cross‐identifications could, among other concepts, account for such phenomena which are projective in nature yet real all the same. Such mechanisms could have the power to relay thoughts the moment undifferentiated parts of the ego – if not unborn parts of the self – were activated in a potentially symbiotic zone. Marked by a feeling of dispossession, the analyst's countertransference not only seemed to underscore this hypothesis, it also gave a partial explanation for it. Until the analyst could recognize his own nostalgia for a symbiotic relationship, he had to encourage the occurrence of those unexpected meetings which stemmed from a convergence between the transference and the countertransference.

The difficulty of being together without being the same: Identifications and differentiations in countertransference

The psychoanalytic encounter (Begegnung) is the starting point of the analyst's and analysand's journey. For this journey to be productive, it is necessary for the analyst to be able to identify with the analysand, thus being able to feel and understand what he or she feels. Both analyst and analysand contribute to this mostly unconscious identification. Sometimes, however, a merging relationship can be created as a result of traumatic traces and unresolved transference conflicts in the mind of the analyst. This merging, excluding any “third” between the analyst and the analysand, can provide shelter from the psychic pain of mourning the loss of the other, but can also hinder development and creativity. This is when the working-through of the analyst's countertransference can allow the analytic thought to be the “third” and the merging relationship to be interrupted. The differentiation of the analyst is the necessary precondition for the subsequent differentiation of the analysand. This paper discusses this situation based on a clinical case in which a dream of the analyst initiated her reflective process and, by working through the countertransference, the analytic process was facilitated.

Masculinity as a Center, Centered Masculinity

The postcolonial writings of Homi Bhabha (1994) provide an outsider's perspective on Western culture. From that perspective, this article examines white, heterosexual masculinity as one “canonical center” of this culture. I see masculinity currently stressed and in transition, both the masculine subjects themselves and the understanding of masculinity. I examine masculinity psychoanalytically as a paradoxical challenge to an individual man as he develops. I look clinically at the struggle of individual men to become “a real man” in the light of social relationships to others who traditionally were unrecognized as fully equal subjects. I also note how the implicit normative masculine in psychoanalytic theory organizes the analyst's clinical perceptions and countertransference, predisposing her to expect the traditional form of the masculine. A newly examined flexible position is encouraged.

The Guilty Pleasure of Erotic Countertransference: Searching for Radial True

Although the use of the analyst's countertransference remains a point of controversy, it is a rare analyst who would not consider countertransference feelings useful fodder at least for the analyst's private reverie. But when the affective valence leans erotic, countertransference becomes once again taboo. This article explores the erotic meanderings of an analyst in relation to several patients with the aim of illustrating how erotic countertransference can be used to further the clinical process in each example. Cases include patients of both genders. Material is considered from within contemporary relational formulations, including the assumptions of multiplicity, the dialectic between relationality and autonomy, and judicious clinical technique that respects the complexity of clinical process.

Our Theories, Our Selves: Commentary on Paper by Ruth Gruenthal

Ruth Gruenthal invites us to explore the dynamics embedded in disengagement. She suggests that this very concept is an oxymoron; by virtue of the fact that the patient is in treatment she is, in fact, engaged. Gruenthal focuses on disengagement's self-sustaining function, noting that it represents an attempt to regulate emotional distance while still retaining a connection to the other. Recognizing how difficult work with withdrawn patients can be, Gruenthal suggests that theory can actually shift the analyst's negative countertransference response. Implicitly she challenges the relational assumption that active engagement around the analyst's subjectivity always lies at the center of therapeutic process. I offer my own take on the dynamics at the heart of Gruenthal's treatment of Helen, proposing that neither disengagement nor containment can be accounted for by the patient or analyst alone. I explore how theory helps us manage our subjectivity while also embodying it.

A curious metaphor. Engaging with trauma: an analytical perspective

This paper explores the metaphor of in vitro fertilization in respect to those parts of the individual 'frozen' through early trauma. It describes the conditions necessary for the reintroduction of the frozen 'embryo' in the therapeutic relationship through use of an extended example. The role of the analytic relationship and the analyst's countertransference are highlighted within the context of implications for the process of therapy.

Whose Termination Is It Anyway?

Termination of psychoanalytic treatment presents a complex challenge concerning the application of psychoanalytic theory and technique. The paucity of cases that might provide analysts an opportunity to explore a variety of management approaches demands that practitioners share their experiences in as much detail as possible, but this occurs infrequently outside of seminars and discussion groups. In an effort to "cast a lens" on the termination process, a detailed description and process notes are presented from the closing phase of a 4-year analysis of a man with obsessive compulsive personality and difficulties with urination outside his home. The analyst's countertransference is emphasized, especially during enactments characteristic of this period. Alterations and variations in analytic technique and the demands for practical courses of action within and outside of the treatment are also examined. The issue of "forced" versus "natural" terminations is addressed as a means toward understanding a model of termination as a necessarily co-constructed component of analysis generally.

Ferenczi and Winnicott: Why We Need Their Radical Edge: Commentary on Paper by Michael Parsons

Parsons's paper, “An Independent Theory of Clinical Technique,” is discussed. Agreement is expressed with many of the theoretical points made by Parsons, and the creative and freeing historical role of the British Independent tradition (recently attacked by Kleinian authors such as Segal) is praised. However, the author sees some of the clinical examples in the paper as expressing a traditionalist conception of psychoanalytic practice, with a strong one-sided emphasis on the analyst as a knowledgeable expert offering deep interpretations. Parsons does not question the nature of the actual intersubjective relationship in each dyad, with its fluctuations and its subtle nuances, which can go far beyond the proclaimed roles of the two partners, at times even reversing them. More radical points of view can be found in the work of Ferenczi and Winnicott, two authors who are significant both for Parsons and for the author; for example, Ferenczi's emphasis on the patient's capacity to interpret the analyst's countertransference, and the experiments with the setting both made in their search for an adaptation to the unique ‘analysand's needs. In conclusion, the paper calls for continued departure from standard techniques of any kind, critically deconstructing all traditional assumptions regarding the analytic process.

Erotic Transference and Its Relationship to Childhood Seduction

The phenomenon of an erotic transference has long been a difficult, if not mysterious, process within clinical psychoanalysis. Traditionally, the development of an erotic transference has been viewed as a negative clinical event fueled by the analyst's countertransference reaction. A much neglected dimension, the relationship between childhood seduction and the development of an erotic transference, will be introduced and examined. In three clinical cases our data suggest that actual sexual abuse in childhood is a causal factor in the manifestation of an erotic transference in the clinical interaction of an analysis.

The Patient Who Believes and the Analyst Who Does Not1

A patient's religious beliefs and practices challenge the clinical experience and self-knowledge of the analyst owing to a great complexity of factors, and often take the form of the analyst's resistances and countertransference reactions to spiritual and religious issues. The analyst's feelings about the patient's encounters with religion and other forms of healing experiences may result in impasses and communication breakdown for a variety of reasons. These reasons include the analyst's own unresolved issues around her role as a psychoanalyst-which incorporates in some way psychoanalysis's views of religious belief-and these old conflicts may be irritated by the religious themes expressed by the patient. Vignettes from the treatments of two patients provide examples of the analyst's countertransference conflicts, particularly envy in the case of a therapist who is an atheist.

“You Must Remember This”

The question of a theory of analytic change is approached through a consideration of analytic impasse. Impasse is considered in relation to impasse in the analyst, linked to an impasse in some forms of mourning in the analyst. The analyst's impasse is considered in the light of character formation, the relation of analytic vocations to early attachment, and object ties in the analyst leading to problems with omnipotence. Impasse then is tied to various processes and defenses that shape and contribute to the analyst's countertransference. Analytic change is considered then in the context of theories of nonlinear development, models of speech practice, and mutative action. These ideas are explored through case material.

Neutrality, tenderness and the analyst's subjectivity

Addressing the rôle of the analyst in the psychoanalytic relationship, the author takes issue with the emphasis on acknowledging the analyst's subjectivity and the critique of concepts like neutrality and abstinence as these issues are presented in the relational tradition. He advocates a better articulation and emphasis of these concepts in the service of understanding the impact of the analyst's subjectivity, and demonstrates how the mere loosening up of analytic neutrality and abstinence and an acceptance of the analyst's self-disclosure make transference analysis more difficult to handle. Such an attitude also increases the risk for ethically dubious conduct, since there is a close link between clinical methods and ethical standards in psychoanalysis. In conclusion, the author points to the importance of the analyst's continuous self-reflection and countertransference analysis.

Projective Identification as an Inescapable Aspect of the Therapeutic Relationship

Based on the theoretical assumption and clinical observation that projective identification is a natural, constant element in human psychology, clinical material is used to illustrate how projective identification centered transference states create situations where acting out of the patient's phantasies and conflicts by both patient and therapist is both common and unavoidable. Because they are more obvious, some forms of projective identification encountered in clinical practice are easier for the analyst to notice and interpret. Other forms are more subtle and therefore difficult to figure out. Finally, some forms, whether subtle or obvious, seem to create a stronger pull on the analyst to blindly act out. In some psychoanalytic treatments, one form of projective identification might embody the core transference. In other cases, the patient might shift or evolve from one level of this mechanism to another. Some patients attempt to permanently discharge their projective anxiety, phantasy, or conflict into the analyst. There is a patent resistance to re-own, examine, or recognize this projection. Some of these patients are narcissistic in functioning, others are borderline, and many attempt to find refuge behind a psychic barricade or retreat (Steiner 1993). In other forms of projective identification, the patient enlists the analyst to master their internal struggles for them. This occurs through the combination of interpersonal and intra-psychic object relational dynamics. This “do my dirty work for me” approach within the transference can evoke various degrees of counter-transference enactments and transference/counter-transference acting out. Another form of projective identification, common in the clinical setting, is when a patient wants to expand the way of relating internally, but is convinced the analyst needs to validate or coach the patient along. This is why such a patient may stimulate transference/counter-transference tests and conduct practice runs of new object relational phantasies within the therapeutic relationship. Over and over, the patient may gently engage the analyst in a test, to see if it is ok to change their core view of reality. Depending on how the analyst reacts or interprets, the patient may feel encouraged to or discouraged from continuing the new method of relating to self and object. The patient's view of the analyst's reactions is, of course, distorted by transference phantasies, so the analyst must be careful to investigate the patient's reasoning and feelings about the so-called encouragement or discouragement. This does not negate the possible counter-transference by the analyst in which he or she may indeed be seduced into becoming a discouraging or encouraging parental figure who actually voices suggestions and judgment. All these forms of projective identification surface with patients across the diagnostic spectrum, from higher functioning depressive persons to those who are more disturbed paranoid-schizoid cases. Whether immediately obvious or more submerged in the therapeutic relationship, projective identification almost always leads to some degree of acting out on the part of the analyst. Therefore, it is critical to monitor or use the analyst's counter-transference as a map towards understanding the patient's phantasies and conflicts that push them to engage in a particular form of projective identification.

The analyst's countertransference when supervising: friend or foe?

This paper explores transference and countertransference dynamics in the supervisory relationship and their impact on the task of supervision. The development of analytic theory in relation to supervision is described and the value-and ambiguity-of the concepts of 'mirroring', 'parallel process' and 'reflective process' are discussed. The impact of organizational dynamics on the supervisory relationship is investigated in relation to four main unconscious forces: a) organizational defences, b) power and authority, c) accountability and responsibility, d) ethical concerns. Clinical situations which illustrate these issues are described and explored and used as a basis for examining the role of the supervisor's countertransference in supervision. The different framework of practice in supervision, as opposed to analysis, is described in terms of its focus, the supervisor's ways of responding and the dynamic process, and the concept of refracted countertransference is introduced and explained.

The Threat of Male-To-Female Erotic Transference

Vignettes from an ongoing psychoanalysis with a patient, Michael, are presented to illustrate the various dimensions of the erotic transference at different phases of the treatment. The relation to power, the experience and expression of aggression, how these may be organized by gender, and the female analyst's countertransference are discussed as potentially fostering or inhibitory in the development of an erotic transference. Traditional sociocultural gender stereotypes kept alive in fantasy can cause female analysts to subtly foreclose the impending threat of an intense erotic transference with male analysands due to a fear of outwardly directed male aggression. It is suggested that the maternal/containing transference can be unconsciously fostered by both analyst and analysand to defensively avoid expression of the aggressivized erotic transference in its full intensity. Similarities and differences in cases of sexual boundary violations with opposite-gender pairings are discussed.

Petite fille? Femme?

This moment of a psychoanalytical encounter with a young 9 year old girl seeks, above all, to recount the particular atmosphere which accompanies a meeting of this sort. The term atmosphere is understood to signify the experiential quality associated with the child's psychic reality and with the manner in which it finds expression at the level of fantasy and dreams. Atmosphere also refers to the singularity and style with which the psychic life of this young girl finds expression in the course of her encounter with a female analyst. Also underlined is the utilization of the analyst's counter-transference, which allows her to <<stay as close as possible>> to the flow of the analysis and to respect its unique quality. In this description, one witnesses the manner in which the incestuous <<rapprochement>> with the father (the <<symptom>> motivating her contact with the analyst) masked, in fact, a desire on the part of the young girl for a drawing nearer to, and a feminine identification with the mother, a desire which had been repressed due to the effective absence of the latter. The recovery of this desire allowed the play of identifications to resume its course, and the young girl to discard her regressive behaviour towards her father while maintaining her affection towards him.

Countertransference in Defense Enactments

A clinical term is introduced to capture a defense that develops with the patient's deepening but fleeting awareness of painful transference feelings. The analyst's attention to countertransference in such situations is central to the analysis of these defenses. An attempt is made to distinguish defense enactments from other types of defenses, and to differentiate the analyst's countertransference reaction to this type of defense from countertransference reactions that might appear similar. The reasons for this dynamic in the interpersonal space are explored, and a clinical example that describes this phenomenon in the analytic moment is given.