ABSTRACT
This chapter takes up one small segment of the topic, the matter of countertransference enactments, in order to illustrate the way the phenomena can be formulated from the viewpoint of free association. Two matters need emphasis. First, the chapter recognize that the associations carry not only a word-meaning but an action potential. In describing the varieties of free association, the chapter outlines that in one kind "the form of association, the way the patient uses language, rather than the content, conveys the meaning". The second matter to emphasize is that the method of free association promotes lexical meaning. The chapter approaches the question of enactment from one more angle, as the product of a tension between interpretation and reaction on the analyst's part. The present-day encouragement to attend to the analyst's participation in the analytic process and to the analyst's countertransference, expressed in the resistance to conscious understanding, creates an opportunity to understand the role of both interpretation and reaction.
