ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews existing literature and to identifies some of the unique aspects of the parent–child relationship. It discusses some of the more beneficent aspects of sibling relationships, including their function in the regulation of psychological states, as well as in potentiation of “mutual recognition” through encounters with one’s first peers. The chapter examines the nature of sibling transference and countertransference experiences, with the aim of describing how sensitivity to the dimension can facilitate psychoanalysts work with patients. The role of the sibling as mirror and model has been less fully explored than has sibling rivalry, but can be just as potentiating of development. Relational psychoanalysis and intersubjectivity, with its emphasis on mutuality of influence, including the co-construction of the analytic encounter, compels psychoanalysts to consider the impact of sibling relationships on psychic life, including the manner in which they shape the dimensions of transference-countertransference experience.
