You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
A MOST SIGNIFICANT FEATURE in the area of countertransference towards children and adolescents is the limited literature. Of 217 references on countertransference provided by an American Psychology Association Abstract Search covering 1967 to 1976, only 10 references—six of which were foreign sources—pertained to children or adolescents. The Bibliography for Training in Child Psychiatry(Berlin, 1976) has 19 references. The venerable Psychoanalytic Study of the Child provides 10 index entries in 25 years. The three editions of the Index of Psychoanalytic Writings cite only 17 references from 1900 to 1969. A scan of subject indexes in child therapy books reveals only nominal attention to countertransference.
Several authors also have noted the relative lack of attention to countertransference. Maurice Green (1972) speaks of the "neglect, " as does Christ (1964) and Akaret and Stockhamer (1965) with respect to late adolescents.
Similarly, in case conferences and reports, attention has traditionally been on topics other than the therapist's feelings.