ABSTRACT
S. Ferenczi, one of the major psychoanalytic pioneers, described with penetrating insight in his last published paper the deep regressions and intense transference-countertransference reactions that occur in the analyses of incest victims. Perhaps because of the rift between Freud and Ferenczi at the time, this astounding paper, considered by some to be a “rediscovered classic,” which constitutes a pioneering application of object relations theory to the clinical situation. Incest patients may have intense transferences to the analyst or therapist who, in turn, may experience intense countertransference reactions. Some seasoned psychoanalytic veterans in this field have advocated psychoanalytic group therapy using cotherapists, partially so that the transference-countertransference intensity can be kept at a manageable level. The newly developed idealizing transference served multiple purposes. During disruptions in the self object transference, it is especially the analysis of the negative transference that contributes to mutative interpretations and reconstruction of the damaging effects of the mother-daughter relationship.
