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On the basis of a clinical example, I should like to illustrate the thesis that acting out by the analyst in the countertransference is a response to the patient's material and, if its unconscious meaning is worked on and elaborated by the analyst and the analysand, can lead to a better understanding of the latter's problems (and also those of the analyst, but that remains a non-verbalized gain). Countertransference reactions fall into a context of interaction between patient and analyst which constitutes a therapeutic lever (Langs, 1988).
I certainly have no wish to deny or even minimize the fact that acting out in the countertransference also has to do with the unresolved, personal unconscious conflicts of the analyst, or that it will necessarily be traumatic for the patient.
Although the analyst will obviously do his best to prevent such irruptions of his unconscious into the session, where a mistake of this kind has nevertheless occurred, it will, if fully acknowledged by him, lead to a thoroughgoing process of transformation and psychic elaboration.
The acting out which I shall describe to you consisted in an error in evaluating the time of the session: I indicated to my patient that the session was over a quarter of an hour early.
Before introducing Sophie to you, I should like to thank her for everything she has taught me and allowed me to understand about her, myself and mental mechanisms. I should also like to express my regret for the suffering I caused her by my mistake and to apologize for the inevitable distortions involved in the writing up of a clinical case history. It is impossible truly to communicate all the exchanges that took place in the patient–analyst interaction and to convey the emotional shifts and affective density of the transference and countertransference movements occurring in an analytical session. I shall endeavour to stay as close as possible to the truth and to be as honest as I can.
Sophie was in her twenties when we first