ABSTRACT
Erotic transference reactions on the part of patients and problems dealing with seductive female patients have been dealt with frequently in psychiatric and psychoanalytic literature. The erotized idealization of the therapist that often develops in the course of such a transaction can be a heady wine, and when combined with a physically attractive patient of the opposite sex, often creates a powerfully seductive mixture. In the late 1920’s Ferenczi, one of Freud’s most devoted friends and disciples, began to experiment with more “active” techniques of analysis because of his dissatisfaction with the therapeutic results of the classic method. Freud’s misgivings concerning Ferenczi’s technical innovations proved to be prophetic. The essential foundation on which the patient-therapist relationship rests in psychotherapy is that of a basic trust.
