ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that research in the field of psychoanalysis is likely to be informed by some of the very factors it purports to examine: namely transference phenomena, not just between the subject of the research and their clients or colleagues, but between the researcher and the material of their research. Therapy’s primary concern is with the patient: with their treatment, or at least with an enhanced understanding of their condition, and with ensuring that this has as beneficial an outcome as possible. Writing about therapeutic work also satisfies some quite strong counter-transferences. The historiography of therapy–that whole termite industry of re-readings of S. Freud, Carl Jung or M. Klein and their case-histories–has its own counter-transference: all the more powerful for being safely second-hand. The psychological meaning of art works is deeply incorporated in their aesthetic qualities.
