ABSTRACT
We now approach the question of virtue. While epistemology necessarily remains an unfinished question (at least from the constructivist point of view), we have said enough to move forward. When we wrestle with the technical problems of gratification and abstinence, neutrality and participation, we implicitly evoke deeper themes. The conclusions we reach are informed by how we understand the structure of health and the curative force of analysis. These issues are the foundational concerns of moral thought. Psychoanalysis, as a therapeutic endeavor, an endeavor that seeks to redeem us from suffering, is intrinsically a theory of virtue, and to reach a congruent theory of the countertransference we must first illuminate this implicit foundation.
