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Countertransference is an undesirable accompaniment and a hindrance to treatment. It should be abolished before it becomes evident. Countertransference is always resistance, and must be analysed. The analyst must be able to achieve this via self-analysis, the capacity for which has been enhanced by repeated analyses. Two examples are given of instances where the analyst became aware of the countertransference before the patient which allowed him to perform most of the self-analysis outside the analytic session. One example is given where the analyst produced a symptom of countertransference in the analytic situation.
The effects of countertransference, although difficult to evaluate, are worth discussion. Some reactions on the patient's part may be more than purely transference; they may be overdetermined in part as reactions to countertransference. In one case the author queries whether the analysis, particularly the transference resistances, would have been carried out more speedily if the countertransference had been recognized. Further material is given from one of the cases to show that the countertransference was such as to induce a regressive movement in the patient with accompanying resistance.
Counteridentification cannot be examined as completely as countertransference. Whereas the concept of transference is complete, the concept of identification is fragmentary and in need of elaboration. Identification is the regressive remnant of an object relationship. If regression is intense enough, identification takes the place of object relationship. Countertransference, if its regressive nature be understood, will be in part counteridentification. Counteridentification interferes with the non-regressive identification which as 'empathy' represents a particular phase of the analyst's work. Not all identifications of the analyst with his patient should be termed counteridentification. In counteridentification the analyst's identification occurs—as does