ABSTRACT
Psycho-analytic cure consists in establishing a unity within the psychic structure of the patient. Most of what is ego alien must be relinquished or reintegrated in the ego. Every object-imago is psychologically a projected part of the subject. The psycho-analytic process in one sense consists, for both patient and analyst, in restoring the unity broken by this division of one into two or more. Hence the continual analytic utilization and solution of every manifestation of negative countertransference and the re-establishment of positive countertransference are decisive factors for the favourable development of the psycho- analytic process. During the last few years psycho-analysts have become in creasingly aware of the importance and meanings of countertransference, both as a hindrance and help for the analytic work. Psychological constellations of this kind may constitute, to a variable degree, a ‘negative therapeutic reaction’ of the analyst.
