Book description
Since Freud's initial papers on transference and countertransference,
these vast and inexhaustible subjects have occupied psychoanalysts.
Transference and countertransference, the essence of the patient/analyst
relationship, are concepts so central to psychoanalysis that, to our
minds, they transcend theoretical orientation and, thus, can be seen as
the unifying focus of psychoanalysis. However differently theoretical
traditions conceptualize the transference, or disagree as to when and
how to interpret it in our everyday analytic work, we all embrace the
phenomena as vital to psychic change. The ten contributors to this book
describe work involving the transference and countertransference, with
links frequently made between such work and psychic change. These are
accounts of the analyst at work, detailed clinical accounts of what can
be considered to be the bread and salt of psychoanalysis, set within a
theoretical framework. The theoretical viewpoints put forth are varied,
encompassing Kleinian, Independent, and Contemporary Freudian
theoretical orientations, and, as such, represent the varied
orientations of the members of the British Psychoanalytic Association.
The psychoanalytic relationship is examined, in its positive and
negative aspects. This includes fine-grained observations and
interpretations as well as broader views of the emotional relationship
with the analyst, with many clinical illustrations. The psychoanalytic
practitioner, as well as the specialist reader, will find the studies of
transference work in this book helpful in understanding the factors
leading toward psychic change and the working-through of unconscious
emotional dilemmas.
