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Countertransference, and what to do with it, may be the prickliest issue in psychoanalysis today. The implication in most writing about countertransference is that traditional psychoanalysis simply does not work with patients who have significant preoedipal problems. Since the crisis in health care makes it more likely that new patients will be even more troubled than the ones we are accustomed to seeing, therapeutic use of the countertransference is destined to become a more pressing issue.
An ongoing problem with the countertransference literature is the reluctance of most clinicians to recommend changes in analytic technique. Simultaneously, problems with traditional analytic technique abound. Various chapters of Countertransference: Theory, Technique, Teaching illustrate the thematic threads pervading the countertransference literature. These recurrent themes are 1) the ubiquitous nature of countertransference, 2) the potentially constructive value of the transference-countertransference interplay, 3) the problem of the analyst's tendency to ward off projected affect and to assign responsibility to the patient for unpleasant or disturbing sensations the analyst experiences, 4) the necessity for the