ABSTRACT
We have discussed the fact that empathy and projective identification have generally been viewed as unrelated—if not thoroughly antipathetic—clinical phenomena, with the former traditionally associated with a harmonious transference- countertransference paradigm and the latter typically mentioned in connection with countertransference turmoil and loss of perspective. Working within the tradition that views psychoanalytic therapy as a radically mutual process and that considers countertransference (broadly defined as the therapist’s total response to the patient) as a potentially useful tool, we have proposed (Burke and Tansey, 1985; Tansey and Burke, 1985) that empathy and projective identification represent interrelated aspects of a unitary sequence for the therapist’s processing of interactional communications from the patient. Drawing upon and extending the work of previous authors (Fliess, 1942, 1953; Greenson, 1960; Olinick, 1969) who have discussed sequences related to empathy, as well as those who have examined stages of internal events occurring in the therapist in relation to projective identification (Malin and Grotstein, 1966; Ogden, 1979, 1982) we have outlined a sequence consisting of three phases: Reception, Internal Processing, and Communication. In the first phase, the therapist receives the patient’s interactional communications and is thereby acted upon and influenced by the patient; the second phase encompasses the therapist’s internal experience and analysis of what has been communicated through the interaction by the patient; and the final phase entails the therapist “giving back” to the patient through the interaction what has been internally processed.
