Transference & Countertransference

Question 1

What is transference?

Answer 1

• Freud: transference is transferring feelings, impulses and reactions to primary caretakers onto the therapist
  -Initially seen by Freud as an obstacle to Rx
  -Later came to see it as essential part of the Rx, in order to experience and work through

Question 2

History of countertransference

Answer 2

-Need to “dominate the countertransference” (Freud)
-“A result of the patient’s influence on [the physician’s] unconscious feelings” (Freud)
-Master personal problem (CT lying in wait)

Question 3

Countertransference (narrow definition)

Answer 3

-Tx transferring onto the Cl
-Client as a problem

Question 4

Redefining countertransference (Heimann)

Answer 4

-Heimann: Not hindrance, but vital source of useful information
-Fear of CT leads to repression and denial of feelings towards Cl
-Tx often becomes detached and intellectual

Question 5

Contemporary definitions (Casement & Mitchell)

Answer 5

-Casement: distinguishes between ‘personal countertransference’ and ‘diagnostic countertransference’
-Mitchell: countertransference as co-created by Cl and Tx (interpersonal communication)
-No such thing as client apart from interpersonal field

Question 6

Clinical use of countertransference (3 Versions)

Answer 6

-3 Versions of CT:
1. Personal
2. Concordant (feel what the client feels)
3. Complementary (feels what someone else feels)

Question 7

Wallin (2007)

Answer 7

-Embodied: How the attachment world lives in the body
-Evoked: What the therapist feels that the client evokes in them
-Enacted: How therapist and client play out relational patterns together