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MODERN INTEREST IN COUNTERTRANSFERENCE as an inherent part of the psychoanalytic process is often cited as having begun with Heimann's (1950) classic paper "On Counter-Transference." Although there were several earlier papers on the subject that shared certain basic assumptions (Berman, 1948) ; (Winnicott, 1949), Heimann stated, perhaps most unequivocably (and most eloquently), that countertransference was not an aberration of standard technique, but a ubiquitous phenomena that had the potential, when recognized and worked with, for deepening the analyst's understanding of the patient. Heimann's emphasis was on the analyst's internal process of using countertransference as a resource for associating to and interpreting the patient's material.
Almost immediately after its publication, Little (1951) responded to Heimann's paper by stating that the analyst's awareness of countertransference experience was not enough. Little proposed that unless the analyst found a means of articulating his awareness of countertransference reactions to the patient, a reenactment of the patient's experience with parental figures would take place. In this event, the analyst would be colluding with the patient's resistance to keep certain perceptions and feelings about the analyst dissociated.
These positions represent fundamentally different approaches of utilizing countertransference. The premise of this article is that these two perspectives, which I call containing and responding, can be thought of as forming a dialectical relationship that can be used as a framework to process countertransference experience. This framework generates a creative tension when we consider the clinical choices to determine how we may best use countertransference to enhance the analytic exploration.
Containing is a familiar and well-established psychoanalytic concept. Heimann, Racker (1968), Winnicott (1949), (1951), (1958), and Bion (1970) have all made essential contributions to the concept.