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Countertransference fascinates all of us because it so dramatically illustrates the functioning of the unconscious. Robert Oelsner, an Argentinean analyst now practicing in the United States, has provided a unique selection of original essays on transference and countertransference by contemporary analysts from different geographical and cultural backgrounds.1 Authors were given instructions to write an original piece of work that would become a chapter of a book rather than a journal article (personal communication, October 23, 2013). They responded with diverse and creative essays. In his chapter, Etchegoyan expresses delight at the opportunity “to speak my mind without having to be constrained … by representing balanced views” (p. 30).
Unlike most works on the subject of countertransference, these authors take as their point of departure the seminal contributions of the Argentinean analyst Heinrich Racker . Their inspiration flows from the Rio de la Plata rather than the River Thames. Oelsner begins where Racker leaves off, posing Racker's original question to the reader: “What have present-day writers to say about the problem of countertransference?” (Racker, 1968, p. 127).
Freud's view was that countertransference was an obstacle to be overcome. Racker introduced the idea that countertransference could be used to understand the patient. In the 1950s both Racker and British analyst Paula Heimann (1950) published papers suggesting that countertransference was