ABSTRACT
The concepts of transference and countertransference share a similar fate, insofar as each went from being regarded first as an obstacle and later as an indispensable tool of analysis. It is therefore possible to state that in a certain sense the notion of countertransference is complementary to that of transference: countertransference as resistance/obstacle and as a therapeutic tool. Over the years, countertransference has undergone a continuous and profound redefining and reconceptualising process associated with the theoretical orientation, the type of patients in treatment, and the innate personological characteristics, of every theorist who has focussed on it. The therapist receives the feelings of transference in a kind of psycho-physical continuity that is relatively indeterminate and undifferentiated with respect to the patient. Psychoanalysis is the talking cure par excellence. The use of countertransference as a therapeutic tool becomes possible only after the psychophysical effort is expended.
