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From the time of his early writings Freud advised against the analyst indoctrinating the patient, and he compared the analyst's task to that of the sculptor, who proceeds per via di levare, i.e. chipping away the marble until the statue comes into view (1905). The 'wild' psychoanalyst (Freud, 1910) imposes his ideas and norms of behaviour upon the patient, instead of investigating his unconscious.
The tendency to convey to the analysand one's own ideas or conflicts is always a very strong one. The 'wild' analyst generally carries it out in a relatively open way, by means of advice or suggestions; the 'schooled' analyst, when he does it, does so (for the most part unintentionally) under the disguise of a formal interpretation. If this happens, the psychoanalytic process is denatured as a therapy and miscarries as a method of investigation.
These and other dangers lead to the need for a training analysis for the candidate, and the requirement that the analyst should constantly scrutinize his countertransference. The psychoanalyst must be always on the alert to gauge and correct the function of his unconscious: like any other investigator he is responsible for his working instruments. This labour is, no doubt, more difficult for him than for other scientists, but it does not differ in its essentials.
There is, however, still more. The objectivity of the analyst may be disturbed by his own ideological beliefs, attitudes and compromises. At this point I am thinking mainly of political and religious ideologies, but I would also include some 'psychoanalytic' ideologies, to be distinguished from real psychoanalytic theories. The former are linked with personal interests and wishful thinking, while real scientific theories can only be linked with truth.
This is a particular source of interference which deserves to be separated from the countertransference neurosis proper (Racker, 1953), since the problem it poses must be dealt with not only by the psychoanalytic investi