You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Countertransference cures result from unconscious wishes and strivings in the therapist whereas transference cures are due to mechanisms operating entirely within the patient's mind. The patient's readiness for transference cure is a prerequisite for countertransference cure and moreover the solution, as unconsciously determined by the therapist, must be a socially acceptable one. Supervision of psychotherapy has shown that the physician has strong conscious desire to help his patient, immediate interest in the symptoms or conflicts, and a certain fascination with the case. On the unconscious level, the patient's conflicts arouse in the therapist conflicts from his own past and intrusion of these into the treatment leads to a countertransference solution of the patient's problems. An almost necessary condition is the therapist's conveying his admiration and sympathy for the way the patient solves his conflicts. This sympathy facilitates intense positive transference with mutual feelings of warmth, resulting in readiness for a transference cure in the patient. The six cases presented have more to do with countertransference solutions in treatment or countertransference problems than with 'cures'. In the three more successful cases, the physician handled his patients' conflicts as he was handling his own, and socially acceptable solutions of the patients' difficulties could emerge. In one instance, the patient identified himself with the therapist's masochism for adjusting to an unhappy