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In the psychoanalytic environment which encourages development of the transference reaction, full examination of the possibility of countertransference must include those external events which can substantially affect the life of the analyst and simultaneously become known to the patient. Thus viewed, this study is an attempt at complete evaluation of psychoanalytic interaction in a specific case, evaluating the effect of my coronary illness upon a patient in analytic treatment and upon myself as the analyst. In it, I focus on what I term the “survival aspects” of specific transference and countertransference reactions which my illness stimulated.
The terms “transference,” “transference neurosis,” and “transference reaction” represent frequently-used concepts indispensable to an understanding of analytic therapy, but interpreted variously. Stern's (12) usable dynamic concept of transference is of an ego function whose mission is to overcome infantile trauma and thereby aid in self-preservation and adaptation; and in the service of the ego, transference provides a continuing means of overcoming painful traumatic events and the lost prestige and power of infancy.