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.
This and the following four brief papers are part of a symposium on countertransference, held by the Medical Section of the British Psychological Society in 1959. Representatives of Jungian and freudian orientation participated.
Fordham defines countertransference as the unconsciously motivated reaction evoked in the analyst by the patient's transference. Using Jungian terminology, he describes it as a transpersonal phenomenon to be used as a source of information. He outlines Jung's views, which emphasize that the analyst cannot defend himself against the patient's transference. The countertransference thus appears to become part of a transpersonal continuum between patient and analyst and is used in interpretation. Technique (it is not clear how the term is used) is suspect because it may be misused to influence the patient in accord with theoretical bias. Countertransference is divided into 'illusory' and 'syntonic' types. From the examples given, it seems the former is unconscious and may be misused by the analyst, while the latter is conscious and may be interpreted after its source in the patient's transference is apparent.