ABSTRACT
The experience of the therapist while he is in interaction with the patient plays a central role in the psychoanalytic understanding of the therapeutic process. The preceding chapter illustrated the historical progression from acknowledgment, through utilization, to the current specification of this essential ingredient in the therapy interaction. While every brand of psychoanalytically informed treatment acknowledges the therapist’s experiential states, variations among distinct schools of clinical theory exist regarding how central a role the experience of the therapist plays in the therapeutic action of treatment and how much, if any, experiential information about the therapist ought to be included in the actual verbal exchange with the patient. Given its widespread recognition and its increasing utilization, surprisingly little has been written about the precise characteristics of this experiential process within the therapist.
