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[[countertransference]] ([[French]]: ''[[contre-transfert]]'')
==Sigmund Freud==
[[Freud]] used the term '[[countertransference]]' to denote the [[analyst]]'s [[unconscious]] [[feelings]] toward the [[analysand]].
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 [[counter-transference]] 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]].
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]].
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 passions stem from the [[unconscious]], an idea which [[Lacan]] rejects.
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 feelings[[feeling]]s, it is not because his [[training ]] [[analysis]] has drained away his passions[[passion]]s, but because it has given him a [[desire ]] which is even stronger than those passions[[passion]]s, a [[desire ]] which [[Lacan]] calls the [[desire of the [[analyst]]]].<ref>{{S8}} p.220-1</ref>
Hence [[Lacan]] does not entirely reject Paula Heimann's position.
He accepts that [[analyst]]s have feelings [[feeling]]s towards their [[patient]]s, and that sometimes the [[analyst]] can direct the [[treatment ]] better by reflecting on these feelings[[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>.
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>{{Sl}} p.32</ref>
If [[countertransference]]is condemned by [[Lacan]], then, it is because he defines it not in terms of affects felt by the [[analyst]], but as the [[analyst]]'s failure to use those affects appropriately.
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>.
"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>{{Sll}} p.231</ref>.
==def==
[[Countertransference ]] is a term in psychotherapy, denoting a condition where the therapist, as a result of the therapy sessions, begins to transfer the therapist's own repressed feelings to the [[patient]].
It is also defined as the entire body of feelings that the therapist has toward the [[patient]].
