ABSTRACT
Whatever form it may take, clinical intuition often runs in both directions during psychotherapy. The notion of all-knowing psychotherapists who deliver insight to patients dates back to classical psychoanalysis. At its inception, psychoanalysis was deeply influenced by the medical model in which it arose. The psychoanalyst (predominantly male) was imbued with power and authority to provide insight to his patients (often female). Insight took the form of interpretations designed to bring unconscious conflicts and motivations to conscious awareness. Interpretations regarding forbidden wishes and repressed fears frequently did prove therapeutic. Yet in hindsight, we see how historically insulated and culture-bound such transferencecountertransference dynamics were, as derived from the Victorian era of suppressed sexuality and prefeminist thought.
