ABSTRACT

The significance given to counter-transference and the importance attached to the corresponding problems depends on the significance given to the role of the analyst in the cure. The transference is always present and always reveals its presence. Likewise counter-transference is always present and always reveals its presence, although, as in the case of transference, its manifestations are sometimes hard to perceive and interpret. This chapter considers counter-transference separately for the two sexes. Towards the female patient the analyst has a latent predisposition to experience all the feelings and impulses that he directed on to his mother during the oedipic phase. Towards the male patient, also, we find, under certain circumstances, a position corresponding to the positive Oedipus complex. The chapter presents the experience of a candidate in dealing with a male patient with intense reaction formations against anal and oral dependence and a very marked tendency to take revenge for the frustrations suffered at the positive oedipic level.