ABSTRACT
This chapter follows the development of the concept of countertransference from initially being seen as a hindrance to psychoanalytic progress to its current use as an important tool in clinical practice. The growing realization that countertransference was an inevitable, and sometimes destructive, phenomenon led to the requirement that all analysts have a personal analysis as part of their education. The vignette from Karl Abraham's letter points to how the therapist's subjective reactions may be a stimulus to self-analytic work and personal growth in the analyst. In connecting the subjective emotions of the analyst and patient, Sigmund Freud may have been suggesting that the therapist can use his unconscious "as an instrument of the analysis" by paying attention to his countertransference feelings. There was a significant shift in the understanding of countertransference during this period: from viewing it as an encumbrance to treatment that must be overcome to seeing countertransference as an essential "instrument of the analysis".
