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But since she2 pricked thee out for women's pleasure Mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure
— W. Shakespeare, Sonnet XX
I AGREE WITH THOSE ANALYSTS who believe that they "themselves regularly develop transference reactions to their patients, including periods of transference neurosis, and that these transference reactions play an essential part in the analytic process." (Bird, 1972)3 Regardless of the position one takes as far as a grasp and application of the concept "countertransference, " all will agree that along with its mate, "transference, " it is the most significant aspect of the psychoanalytic process. And that their analyses is the sine qua non of psychoanalytic practice. It has been stated that the difficulty in the management of the transference lies in the management of the countertransference. (Levenson, Feiner, Stockhamer, 1976) Yet despite the surfeit of papers, symposia and commentary on this important topic, since Freud (1910) first wrote of his discovery with characteristic amazing lucidity, there is a good deal of disagreement, and perhaps even confusion, as to what Freud originally intended. There is yet no consensus as to how countertransference develops, what its content consists of, and how it is to be used. This is not at all difficult to understand, for not only did Freud change his mind in the few specific references he made to his early discovery