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This book is an ambitious undertaking successfully executed. Beginning with Freud, who emphasized the vital role of transference in psychoanalysis but dealt with countertransference dismissively, as something to be “overcome,” the Marshalls trace the growing recognition of the importance of the transference-countertransference interaction in therapy. This is no mean task. It involves not only identifying the many types of transference and countertransference and their mutations, antecedents, and consequences, but also establishing a coherent schema for determining their place in the ever-shifting phases of the therapeutic process. In Freud's metaphor, (“… where I have discovered a few temples, others may discover a continent.”), this work by the Marshalls may be said to contribute significantly toward the evolutionary process of discovery.
The scholarship that went into the writing of this book is impressive. The input from all the main psychoanalytic orientations to an understanding of the concepts of transference and countertransference is outlined and evaluated. The authors then lucidly present their own contribution—but not as mere theorizing. Their aim is to guide the therapist and supervisor operationally out of the morass of definitions and conflicting concepts to an appreciation of the transference-countertransference forces at work in the therapy setting. In the process, they highlight the preeminent role of feelings in patient-analyst-supervisor interactions. In other words, alertness to feelings on all sides is necessary in order to maintain an ambience