Wayne A. Myers, M.D.

In my experience, the two most difficult aspects of teaching candidates the clinical skills of psychoanalysis have to do with their learning to confront their own countertransference blind spots and with their acceptance of themselves as “real analysts,” capable of conducting an analysis on a level equal to that of their own analysts. This latter problem is especially manifest in the candidate's ability to recognize and appropriately interpret transference material. Needless to say, these two areas resonate constantly with one another.

While one could make a very compelling argument for the fact that the most important means of dealing with both of the aforementioned problems would be a long period of successful analysis, an idea which I would certainly subscribe to, from the pedagogical point of view certain other issues are helpful to consider. Let me address the area of countertransference blind spots first.

Most often, the psychoanalytic supervisor is the first one to become aware of the candidate analyst's blind spots. These are often manifest as failures to make transference or other appropriate interpretations; failures to address repetitive actions which occur, such as the patient's not paying the bill or being consistently late or absent from sessions; a need to be overly ingratiating or overly talkative; or a tendency to deal with the patient in a cavalier manner, to cite but a few examples.

Occasionally, the candidate analyst is the first one to recognize countertransference issues, though they may not label them as such. This is especially true when the candidate feels either intensely positive or negative feelings toward their patients which persist after treatment hours; or when they have dreams or fantasies about their patients, either of a sexual or aggressive nature; or when they feel protective toward or tuned out from their patients. I should note here that though the candidates may be aware of such feelings, they are usually loathe to bring them up