ABSTRACT
Lorand (1946) writes mainly about the dangers of countertransference for analytic work. He also points out the importance of taking countertransference reactions into account, for they may indicate some important subject to be worked through with the patient. He emphasizes the fact that these problems of countertransference concern not only the candidate but also the experienced analyst. This chapter attempts to show without reserve how oedipal and preoedipal conflicts as well as paranoid, depressive, manic, and other processes persist in the ‘countertransference neurosis’ and how they interfere with the analyst’s understanding, interpretation, and behaviour. Countertransference reactions have specific characteristics from which we may draw conclusions about the specific character of the psychological happenings in the patient. The lack of scientific investigation of countertransference must be due to rejection by analysts of their own countertransferences—a rejection that represents unresolved struggles with their own primitive anxiety and guilt.
