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IN ADDRESSING THE TOPIC "Self-Disclosure: Therapeutic Tool or Indulgence?" Jay Greenberg has focused on the analyst's complex decision process in deciding how to respond to a patient's questions. He has given us a glimpse into his own thought process regarding disclosure of this particular kind and I think we are all appreciative of this, even if we would not necessarily work the same way.
Given that there are not only many different perspectives on disclosure of this type, but also many different kinds of disclosure, what I would like to do is not only focus on some of the questions Dr. Greenberg raises but also to open our discussion to include a consideration of other types of disclosure. In particular I will argue for the value of judicious types of countertransference disclosure.
As early as 1915 Freud wrote, "It is a very remarkable thing that the Ucs. of one human being can react upon that of another, without passing through the Cs" (1915, p. 194). In 1950 Heimann, writing on countertransference, noted that the analyst's "unconscious perception of the patient's unconscious is more acute and in advance of his conscious conception of the situation … the analyst's emotional response to his patient within the analytic situation represents one of the most important tools for his work" (p. 82). Although Heimann's emphasis was on using countertransference as a "source of insight into the patient's unconscious conflicts and defenses," what I will try to demonstrate is that in many instances judicious kinds of countertransference disclosure, even before we consciously grasp the significance of our own responses, can itself be a very powerful analytic tool.
I define countertransference disclosure as involving the analyst's revelation