ABSTRACT
Analysis claims that it is a therapy based on understanding. Change unfolds through the process of understanding. The question of what constitutes understanding, then, must be addressed as we try to sort out the significance of the countertransference. In the analytic context, epistemology is critical to the problem of countertransference both in the effort to make sense of the analyst’s understanding and in the analysand’s connection to the real. The way we understand these issues will exert a governing effect on how we view the countertransference. It is necessary to take up the problem of epistemology to clarify how the countertransference hinders or facilitates our knowledge of the analysand. The conclusions we reach will determine how we imagine the therapeutic process and its effect on the analysand’s reality testing.
