Transference and Countertransference: A Unifying Focus of Psychoanalysis

Since Freud's initial papers on transference and countertransference, these vast and inexhaustible subjects have occupied psychoanalysts. Transference and countertransference, the essence of the patient/analyst relationship, are concepts so central to psychoanalysis that, to our minds, they transcend theoretical orientation and, thus, can be seen as the unifying focus of psychoanalysis. However differently theoretical traditions conceptualize the transference, or disagree as to when and how to interpret it in our everyday analytic work, we all embrace the phenomena as vital to psychic change.

The ten contributors to this book describe work involving the transference and countertransference, with links frequently made between such work and psychic change. These are accounts of the analyst at work, detailed clinical accounts of what can be considered to be the bread and salt of psychoanalysis, set within a theoretical framework. The theoretical viewpoints put forth are varied, encompassing Kleinian, Independent, and Contemporary Freudian theoretical orientations, and, as such, represent the varied orientations of the members of the British Psychoanalytic Association.

The psychoanalytic relationship is examined, in its positive and negative aspects. This includes fine-grained observations and interpretations as well as broader views of the emotional relationship with the analyst, with many clinical illustrations. The psychoanalytic practitioner, as well as the specialist reader, will find the studies of transference work in this book helpful in understanding the factors leading toward psychic change and the working-through of unconscious emotional dilemmas.