24,656
edits
Changes
→Case Studies
{{Top}}contre-[[transfert]]{{Bottom}}
==Sigmund Freud==
[[Freud]] coined the term "[[countertransference]]" to designate the [[analyst]]'s "[[countertransference|unconscious feelings]]" towards the [[patient]].
Although [[Freud]] only used the term very rarely, it became much more widely used in [[psychoanalytic theory]] after his [[death]].
==After Freud==
In [[particular]], [[analyst]]s soon [[divided]] over the [[role]] allotted to [[countertransference]] in discussions of [[technique]].
On the one hand, many [[analyst]]s argued that [[countertransference]] manifestations were the result of incompletely analysed elements in the [[analyst]], and that such manifestations should therefore be reduced to a minimum by a more [[complete]] [[training]] [[analysis]].
On the other hand, some [[analyst]]s from the [[Klein]]ian [[school]], beginning with Paula Heimann, argued that the [[analyst]] should be guided in his [[interpretation]]s by his own [[countertransference]] reactions, taking his own [[feelings]] as an indicator of the [[patient]]'s [[state]] of [[mind]].
Whereas the former group regarded [[countertransference]] as an obstacle to [[analysis]], the latter group regarded it as a useful tool.
==Jacques Lacan==
In the 1950s, [[Lacan]] describes [[countertransference]] as a [[resistance]], an obstacle which hinders the [[progress]] of [[psychoanalytic]] [[treatment]].
[[Countertransference]] is a [[resistance]] of the [[analyst]].
Thus [[Lacan]] defines [[countertransference]] as "the sum of the prejudices, [[passion]]s, perplexities, and even the insufficient information of the [[analyst]] at a certain [[moment]] of the [[dialectic]]al [[process]]' of the [[treatment]]."<ref>{{Ec}} p. 225</ref>
==Case Studies==
[[Lacan]] refers to two of [[Freud]]'s [[case]] studies to illustrate what he means.
===Young Homosexual Woman===
In 1957 [[Lacan]] presents a similar [[analysis]] of Freud's treatment of the young [[homosexual]] woman <ref>{{F}} (1920a [1918]) "[[Works of Sigmund Freud|The Psychogenesis of a Case of Female Homosexuality]]," [[SE]] XVIII, 147.</ref>.
He argues that when [[Freud]] [[interpreted]] the [[woman]]'s [[dream]] as expressing a [[wish]] to deceive him, he was focusing on the [[imaginary]] [[dimension]] of the [[woman]]'s [[transference]] rather than on the [[symbolic]] dimension.<ref>{{S4}} p. 135</ref>.
That is, [[Freud]] interpreted the [[dream]] as something directed at him personally, rather than as something directed at the [[Other]].
[[Lacan]] argues that [[Freud]] did this because he found the [[woman]] attractive and because he [[identification|identified]] with the [[woman]]'s [[father]].<ref>{{S4}} p. 106-9</ref>.
Once again, [[Freud]]'s [[countertransference]] brought the [[treatment]] to a premature end, though this time it was [[Freud]] who decided to terminate it.
==Training==
The preceding examples might seem to [[suggest]] that [[Lacan]] aligns himself with those [[analyst]]s who argue that the [[training]] [[analysis]] should give the [[analyst]] the capacity to transcend all [[affect|affective reactions]] to the [[patient]].
However, [[Lacan]] absolutely rejects this point of view, which he dismisses as a "stoical [[ideal]]".<ref>{{S8}} p.219</ref>.
The [[training]] [[analysis]] does not put the [[analyst]] beyond [[passion]], and to believe that it does would be to believe that all the [[passion]]s stem from the [[unconscious]], an [[idea]] which [[Lacan]] rejects.
==Desire of the Analyst==
If anything, the better analysed the [[analyst]] is, the more likely he is to be frankly in [[love]] with, or be quite repulsed by, the [[analysand]].<ref>{{S8}} p. 220</ref>.
If, then, the [[analyst]] does not [[act]] on the basis of these [[feeling]]s, it is not because his [[training]] [[analysis]] has drained away his [[passion]]s, but because it has given him a [[desire]] which is even stronger than those [[passion]]s, a [[desire]] which [[Lacan]] calls the [[desire of the analyst]].<ref>{{S8}} p. 220-1</ref>
==Affect==
Hence [[Lacan]] does not entirely reject Paula Heimann's [[position]].
He accepts that [[analyst]]s have [[feeling]]s towards their [[patient]]s, and that sometimes the [[analyst]] can direct the [[treatment]] better by reflecting on these [[feeling]]s.
For example, if [[Freud]] had reflected a bit more on his feelings towards the young homosexual [[woman]], he might have avoided [[interpreting]] her [[dream]] as a [[message]] addressed directly to him.<ref>{{S4}} p. 108</ref>.
<blockquote>"No one has ever said that the [[analyst]] should never have feelings towards his [[patient]]. But he must [[know]] not only not to give into [[them]], to keep them in their [[place]], but also how to make adequate use of them in his technique."<ref>{{S1}} p.32</ref></blockquote>
If [[countertransference]] is condemned by [[Lacan]], then, it is because he defines it not in [[terms]] of [[affect]]s felt by the [[analyst]], but as the [[analyst]]'s failure to use those [[affect]]s appropriately.
==Late Lacan==
In the 1960s [[Lacan]] becomes very critical of the term [[countertransference]].
He argues that it connotes a symmetrical [[relationship]] between the [[analyst]] and the [[analysand]], whereas the [[transference]] is anything but a symmetrical relationship.
When [[speaking]] of the [[analyst]]'s position it is both misleading and unnecessary to use the term [[countertransference]]; it is sufficient to [[speak]] of the different ways in which the [[analyst]] and [[analysand]] are implicated in the [[transference]].<ref>{{S8}} p. 233</ref>.
<blockquote>"The [[transference]] is a phenomenon in which [[subject]] and [[psycho]]-analyst are both included. To [[divide]] it in terms of [[transference]] and [[counter-transference]] . . . is never more than a way of avoiding the [[essence]] of the matter."<ref>{{S11}} p. 231</ref></blockquote>
==See Also==
{{See}}
* [[Affect]]
* [[Analyst]]
||
* [[Desire]]
* [[Interpretation]]
||
* [[Training]]
* [[Transference]]
||
* [[Treatment]]
* [[Unconscious]]
{{Also}}
==References==
<div style="font-size:11px" class="references-small">
<references/>
</div>
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
[[Category:Treatment]]
[[Category:Practice]]
[[Category:Dictionary]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Symbolic]]
[[Category:Concepts]]
[[Category:Terms]]
[[Category:OK]]
__NOTOC__
