Deconstructing Countertransference

Abstract

Abend’s (1989) paper, “Countertransference and Psychoanalytic Technique,” is a status report on the concept of countertransference in all its various usages at that time which argues for a “big tent” approach to countertransference that includes a wide variety of subjective experiences the analyst encounters. The author argues that while Abend’s approach has helped to “normalize” the analyst’s emotional reactions to the analysand, this approach gives short shrift to the important variations in the analyst’s subjective experience of the analysand. The author explores the different kinds of subjective experiences evoked in the clinician that have been typically grouped under the big tent approach to countertransference. A clinical vignette is offered to illustrate these points.

Keywords:

• Countertransference
• Freud
• Bion
• Field Theory
• reverie

Notes

1 I will use the spelling of “counter-transference” with a hyphen to denote the classical Freudian perspective.

2 Hence, the three-part aspects of contemporary analytic training (personal analysis, treating patients under supervision and seminars) are known as the “Eitington model.” Balint (1954) noted that Eitington may have had the first, though informal, “training analysis” with Freud. In a letter (22 October, 1909) to Ferenczi, Freud commented that, “Eitington is here. Twice weekly, after dinner, he comes with me for a walk and has his analysis during it.”

3 The German word for “suspended” has been defined differently by some analysts as “swaying” (Hoffer 2015), which suggests attention that moves with the patient rather than “hovering” or “suspending” above the analysand.

4 Reik had a family at the time that he would be unable support if he went to Berlin and Freud offered financial assistance to support Reik’s training.

5 I think that when Freud (1913) said, “everyone possesses in his own unconscious an instrument with which he can interpret the utterances of the unconscious in other people” (p. 320), he was anticipating what Bion calls alpha function.

6 Karl Menninger (1937) said in a review “that all psychoanalysts should read [the book] … as an antidote to the extreme individualism” (p. 132) of psycho-analytic practice.

7 Rickman told Trist of a document he wrote with Bion that outlined a plan for a therapeutic community; however, Trist said the document could not be found (Trist 1985).

8 Bion, W. (1940) “The “War of Nerves”: Civilian Reaction, Morale and Prophylaxis.” In E. Miller & H. Crichton-Miller (Eds) The Neuroses in War. London: Macmillan, pp. 180-200. Also in CW 4: 5-21.

9 The three basic assumptions are dependency, fight-flight and pairing.

10 From 200 to 300 drivers and cyclists perished on this road each year until it was modernized in 2006.