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In this important book, Heinrich Racker has collected most of what he wrote and published on countertransference and its relation to
psychoanalytic technique. Every chapter appeared in one form or another in various journals between 1953 and 1960, but the book has a certain logical harmony even though repetitions are unavoidable in a work of this kind.
The first chapter is a concise review and remarkably lucid abstract of classical analysis. The second chapter contrasts classical analysis and what Racker calls present-day techniques of psychoanalysis, meaning mostly the contributions of W. R. D. Fairbairn and Melanie Klein. The next two chapters are concerned with the theory of transference and analysis of the transference neurosis. Here Racker contrasts the so-called classical technique of the twenties with the modern tendency to be more active and interpret more material. He traces this activity of the analyst to the understanding of the infant's preverbal experiences leading to paranoid and depressive positions. These produce quick shifts in object or partobject cathexis and identifications which in turn manifest themselves in transference in equally rapid changes. These shifts escape awareness unless they are demonstrated every time they appear. Without the active help of the analyst, the patient could not possibly disentangle himself from his infantile reactions to good and bad objects perceived as introjected or projected, or perceived according to the many variations postulated by Fairbairn on that particular theme. Racker always keeps Klein's and Fairbairn's concepts within the framework of freudian psychology.
The second half of the book is concerned with the countertransference neurosis and its resolution. While everyone who has read Racker's articles knows how articulate he is on the subject of countertransference, the present book demonstrates how methodically and painstakingly he has approached that problem. It is impressive to read such an e