Transference and Countertransference Today

Why has Heinrich Racker's original work on transference and countertransference proven so valuable?


With a passionate concern for the field created by the meeting of analyst and patient, and an abiding interest in the central importance of transference and countertransference in analytic practice, Robert Oelsner has brought together the thought and work of seventeen eminent analysts from Europe, the United States, and Latin America.


In new essays commissioned for this volume, the writers have set aside the lines that can often divide psychoanalytic groups and schools in order to examine in depth the variety of approaches and responses that characterize the best analytic practice today. The result is a collection of fresh, contemporary material centred on the two interrelated subjects - transference and countertransference - that make up the core of psychoanalytic work. Both in the clarity of their language and in moving clinical examples the writers reveal, in distinctively personal ways, how Heinrich Racker's original thought, which brought the analyst's unconscious responses into the equation, has allowed them to evolve their own perspectives. Yet it is particularly interesting to find unexpected parallels among the chapters that point toward a shared vision. Clearly, whether in work with adults or children, transference and countertransference are now seen as encompassing a field that embraces both participants in the consulting room.


Making Transference and Countertransference Today still more valuable as a resource for teachers and students are several major contributions by authors whose work is not otherwise readily available in English. Psychoanalysts and others will find few other books that present such a thoughtful picture of these crucial and fascinating analytic topics.

Notes on Contributors. Foreword. Acknowledgments. Introduction. Racker, Observations on Countertransference as a Technical Instrument: Preliminary Communication. Etchegoyen, Transference-Countertransference: A Testimony. Faimberg, "Well, You'd Better Ask Them": The Countertransference Position at the Crossroads. Fainstein, Countertransference: A Contemporary Approach from the River Plate Region. Hinshelwood, Freud's Countertransference? Reviewing the Case Histories with Modern Ideas of Transference and Countertransference. Weiss, Misconceptions, Enactment, and Interpretation. Lemma, Transference on the Couch. Gampel, Some Reflections on Transference and Countertransference: The Effects of Social Political Violence in Children, in the Analyst, and in the Psychoanalytic Process. Berman-Oelsner, Transference and Countertransference in Child Analysis. Grotstein, The Psychoanalytic Covenant: "Human Sacrifice" as the Hidden Order of Transference Countertransference. Chuster, Transference - or Caesura? Oelsner, Transference Minute to Minute: Analysis of an Analysis. Jacobs, Nonverbal Cues in Transference-Countertransference Interactions: Reflections on Their Role in the Analytic Process. Cooper, The Analyst's Self-Reflective Participation and the Transference-Countertransference Matrix. Borgogno and Vigna-Taglianti, Role-Reversal and the Dissociation of the Self: An Exploration of a Somewhat Neglected Transference-Countertransference Dynamic. Harris, Psychoanalysis and the Influencing Machine: Psychoanalysis as the Influencing Machine. Aisenstein, Transference and Countertransference with Somatic Patients. Index.