Transference and countertransference today edited by Robert Oelsner

The book consists of a compilation of 17 clinical papers written by analysts from various regions of the world around the theme of transference and countertransference. Each of the authors offer a personal perspective on the subject stemming from his/her particular orientation and using clinical examples demonstrate how they conceptualize the dynamics of these phenomena in their practice. Robert Oelsner's aim in this book is to identify developments in the field of countertransference since Heinrich Racker's

original ideas. The opening chapter introduces the first English translation of Heinrich Racker's paper entitled ‘Observations on Countertransference as a Technical Instrument: Preliminary Communication’, presented to the Argentine psychoanalytic Association in 1951.

The next chapter, ‘Transference‐countertransference: A Testimony’ by Horacio Etchegoyen (Argentina) reminds us that Freud never fully understood the negative transference because he considered it mainly as a resistance. Etchegoyen maintains that Freud was not aware of the oral components of hysteria and he states: “Freud could not overcome the prejudices of his time. He felt too ‘macho’ to be able to operate with the maternal transference” (p. 33).

Etchegoyen shows how widely influenced he is by the various schools of psychoanalysis. He brings together the ego psychological and the object relations approach to the understanding of the psychoanalytic process. For instance, he states: “The baby not only sucks at the breast to satisfy his need and express his love but also to awaken the mother's love and to stimulate, in this joint task, lacto genesis” (p. 47). Thus, he suggests that the baby develops his ego functions as well as developing a benign superego to offset persecution. Etchegoyen emphasizes the importance of the working alliance and at the same time he laments the fact that in spite of various attempts in recent years, th