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There are many clinical situations posing problems that defy our knowledge and technical skill. These require modifications of treatment arising out of research that may contribute either to our knowledge of the dynamic factors in mental illness or to our techniques so we may, if possible, widen the scope of psychoanalysis. These are other situations, however, which are resolved when the analyst is able to identify and work through his countertransference and make note of the departures from the classical model that may have been introduced as he, like the patient, lives out the myth of re-enacted
reality called (counter)transference. Vulnerability to counter-reactions, including countertransference responses, seems greater in child analysis. Child analysts have tended, until recent times, to ignore or neglect this area. The prior neglect and recent attention to countertransference, we believe, is related to the similar situation regarding transference and the transference neurosis in child analysis. We have, in the main, discussed the problem of the neglect, that which is unique about countertransference in child analysis, and briefly discussed how knowledge of countertransference phenomena might be used to further the course of an analysis.