The name Heinrich Racker is hardly a household word in American psychiatry. It is probable that most psychiatrists have never heard of him, and very few indeed have read him. This is, in our opinion, a remarkable and unfortunate fact, considering the importance of his ideas for the whole field of psychotherapy.

Within the vast literature of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy there has grown up, over the past thirty years, a body of writing which deals with the emotional reactions of the therapist towards his patient. It is within this area — the affective experiences of the therapist and the possible uses of those experiences for the treatment — that Heinrich Racker has made his principal, though by no means only, contributions. We believe that Racker has written more profoundly on these matters than anyone else and that his ideas and formulations are so fundamental that they offer a framework for ordering other contributions and for giving direction to