ABSTRACT
This chapter extends a survey on the evolution of the concept of countertransference by Abend in 1989. The author notes the shift in attention away from analyzing the patient’s narrative and toward analyzing the interaction. He comments on the inevitable participation of the analyst’s character in the process, which is only now being seriously integrated into how analysts think about their work. He objects to the term countertransference as something that only occurs in the therapist, and he suggests that it is used as a disguised reference to the analyst’s transference to the patient.
