ABSTRACT
The notion of countertransference was introduced by Sigmund Freud, and yet people rarely encounter it in his writings. Consequently, for Freud, the feelings and the countertransference temptations experienced by the analyst in his or her work with patients must not be denied; rather, the analyst should try to reach a position of uninterest towards them in this regard. As regards Sabina Spielrein's treatment, Freud did not know the whole story; Jung had not been clear about his own degree of involvement in the erotic transference-countertransference dynamics that had been established with Spielrein. The fact that Freud introduced the concept of countertransference when talking about 'The Future Prospects of Psychoanalytic Therapy', however, suggests that he did not just see the countertransference as an obstacle to get rid of, but he also perceived, as in the case of the transference, that a better understanding of it might lead to new, important contributions to the psychoanalytic technique.
