Restoring the links in countertransference

Abstract

Psychoanalytic theory and practice consider both transference and countertransference as cornerstones for understanding those complicated psychological phenomena which psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy bring to light. The relationship between a patient and a psychoanalyst has been the crucial point on which our attention and interest is focused. In the intersubjective space of psychoanalytic psychotherapy, all interactions between the patient and the analyst are considered to mutually influence each participant of the analytic dyad. Together with patients, clinicians get involved in ambiguous, uncanny and unavoidable enactments. The understanding of the latter requires from a psychoanalyst not only to contain the patient's anxiety and reflect on the patient's inner feelings but also to stay open to the gamut of feelings, anxieties and conflicts that arise from the professional's experience. I suggest that accomplishing the complicated task of understanding both the patient`s and his own feelings and experience leads the analyst to the necessity of restoring links with himself. By means of clinical material, I make an attempt to show how the process of understanding an uncanny enactment becomes for the therapist a process of restoring the links in countertransference which, in turn, enables the therapist to interpret the patient's specific difficulties.

Key words:

• countertransference
• transference
• links
• restoration
• enactment
• depressive conflict

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The same Lithuanian phrase “viso labo” can be used with both meanings – AK.

2 Italics mine – AK.

3 Laume – singular; Laumes – plural. Lithuanian.

4 In the legend, a lad went past a bathhouse, opened the door and saw the breeding Laumės inside. He started running and Laumės chased him. After running to his yard, he closed the gate, but Laumės climbed over it. The lad was shut in after he had run into the farmhouse. However, after several days Laumės caught him and tore him to bits (Dundulienė, 2008).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Aleksandras Kulak

Aleksandras Kulak, MD, is a psychiatrist and psychoanalytic psychotherapist. He is a teacher of psychoanalytic theory and supervisor at the Kaunas Society for the Studies of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (IFPS). He is also a psychoanalyst in training at the Swedish Psychoanalytical Association (IPA).