Sander Abend’s classic paper “Countertransference and Psychoanalytic Technique” can be read as both a historical review of ideas about countertransference, and an example of a historical moment in the ongoing evolution of thinking about the use of the analyst’s self. The view of the analyst’s participation in the process has moved from observer, to actor in the transference-countertransference, to the present-day interest in the role of the analyst’s actual character in a unique relationship. With respect to the latter, Abend has invited a reconsideration of the assumption that one’s theoretical position accurately reflects one’s clinical work.