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Dr. Fliess discusses countertransference and counteridentification as undesirable elements in the analyst's relationship to his patient. Ideally, countertransference should not occur; certainly it must always be analyzed. If it has
become apparent to the patient, part of the analyst's self-analysis may have to be communicated to the patient. The damaging effect of countertransference upon the progress of analysis is illustrated by three examples. In each case self-analysis by the analyst led to the castration complex, which Freud called 'the rock bottom of all psychological stratification'.
The analyst aware of the problem may console himself with the knowledge that interminable analysis of his countertransferences affords him an exceptional opportunity for resolution of his conflict. Counteridentification is more difficult than countertransference to understand because identification is less fully understood than transference. Identification may be active or passive. Fliess compares it with projection and considers the problem of where the object of identification lies in the ego. Countertransference is regressive; it is in part counteridentification. The analyst's involvement in counteridentification is similar to folie à deux: the identification is mutual. The analyst is responding to the patient's identification with him. Both are re-enacting an early 'constituent identification', an identification which the ego does not merely contain but of which it consists.
This regressive identification interferes with nonregressive identification or 'empathy' by which the analyst is enabled to subject the utterances of the patient to an unconscious elaboration without thereby causing regressive change in his own ego.
Empathy requires that the constituent elements of the ego be well organized; they otherwise cause malformations of the ego and make the analyst respond to the patient's identification by counteridentification. The result is a 'blind spot'; the anal