Revue Française De Psychanalyse. XL, 1976: Introductory Reflections on the Study of Some Active Factors in the Countertransference. Denise Braunschweig and Michel Fain. Pp. 483-540.

In a previous article Braunschweig made the claim that the analyst is able to understand his patient by means of a hysterical identification with the patient. There has, however, been little discussion of this claim, possibly because it upsets the usual concepts on the dynamics of countertransference. Here the authors present the interesting thesis that there is a critical element which comes into play at the moment of hysterical identification. This critical aspect is an important organizing factor in the countertransference and helps balance out the resexualization involved as the analyst deviates from a neutral ideal toward an empathic understanding of the patient through hysterical identification. In his significant study of transference, Michel Neyraut stressed the importance of the countertransference in the acquisition of theoretical psychoanalytic knowledge. Braunschweig and Fain feel that this way of viewing the problem will end in a criticism of hysterical identification that will minimize its force and importance. In their tightly argued, polemical article they defend their emphasis on hysterical identification and attempt to show that countertransference can be explained metapsychologically by reference to their "critical element."