I BELIEVE THAT THE HUMAN EMOTIONAL REACTIONS of analysts to their patients not only cannot be avoided, but can be used to facilitate analytic understanding and progress.

Similarly, an analyst may have rational and reality based feelings and attitudes toward his patient, which I do not include in my use of the term counter-transference. Some authors use that term to include these appropriate, unexaggerated non-defensive, and non-anxious reactions of an analyst to patients. These responses, however, are neither counter, that is, provoked only by the patient, nor are they transference reactions in the sense of being unanalyzed and irrational. They are much neglected. Their significance is belittled and their usefulness to therapy is not realized.

… from noticing at any given moment our own reactions with patients, we, as analysts, can learn much about what our patients are really like and what they are doing with us in the analysis.