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This is a paper on countertransference and, more specifically, about countertransferential enactments hidden behind correct analytic interventions. It discusses important and controversial issues through arguments derived directly from clinical situations that are described in a clear and detailed way.
According to Jacobs, the current conception of countertransference as an entity that at every moment both facilitates and interferes with analytic work can be misleading and leads to deflections of the analytic process, as the facilitative and obstructive aspects are rarely of equal importance. There are occasions in which the negative aspects are so disruptive that it makes any present facilitator aspects negligible. In the same manner, situations exist in which the countertransferential reactions of an analyst are the central fact that makes the treatment advance, rendering contemptible any negative aspects they could have. The theoretical perspective when applied to clinical practice could be misleading. This is the reason why the emphasis of this paper is on concrete clinical situations.
In the author's opinion, countertransference could manifest itself either in a totally unconscious, enacted, non-verbal way, or in a partially unconscious way, which registers itself in consciousness as affects, thoughts, fantasies and memories. From these two ways, only the latter would have the possibility of being contained before being enacted, while the former would be unavoidably enacted, only being noticed a posteriori.
Three clinical vignettes are included from analysis with different patients and, starting from this empirical basis, important theoretical questions are discussed.
The first case, Ms C, aims to show how veiled and non-verbal messages, which carry negative feelings, concealed sexuality and reparation needs—both from patient and analyst—are concealed behind a correct and useful interpretation, confirmed by the patient. These messages operated as a signal