[[Freud]] coined the term "countertransference" to designate the analyst's "unconscious feelings" towards the paitnet.
[[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]].
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>
--
[[Lacan]] refers to two of [[Freud]]'s case studies to illustrate what he means.
In 1951, he refers to the [[Dora]] case, and argues that [[Freud]]'s [[countertransference]] was rooted in his [[belief]] that [[heterosexuality]] is [[natural]] rather than [[normative]], and in his [[identification]] with Herr K.
[[Lacan]] argues that it was these two factors which caused [[Freud]] to handle the [[treatment]] badly and provoke the 'negative transference' which led to [[Dora]] breaking off the [[treatment]] <ref>[{{L}} (1951a) "Intervention sur le transfert", in {{E}} pp.215-26 ["Intervention on the transference", trans. Jacqueline Rose, in Juliet Mitchell and Jacqueline Rose (eds.), ''Feminine Sexuality: the School of Lacan'', New Haven and London: Yale University, 1980, pp. 215-33.</ref>.
--
In 1957 [[Lacan]] presents a similar [[analysis]] of Freud's treatment of the young homosexual woman <ref>Freud, 1920a</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 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.
---
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 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 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 [[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>
---
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 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>{{S11}} p.231</ref>.
==def==
The mantra "only connect" is often associated with this effect.
