Male Patients and Female Analysts: Erotic and Other Psychoanalytic Encounters

Attention has been increasingly focused, in the last few years, on gender issues in the analytic situation. Evolution of concepts of transference and of gender development has gradually led to a nonpejorative — although still controversial — view that gender may indeed influence the analytic process without necessarily affecting the outcome (Kulish, 1984).

In focusing attention here on the female analyst-male patient dyad, I address two phenomena: First, the erotic transference in this dyad — and related countertransference issues; second, the extent to which paternal transferences develop — and related countertransference issues.

First the erotic transference: There seems to be an ongoing controversy over whether or not male patients develop erotic transferences toward their female analysts. The consensus here may be greater than is at first apparent. The question is really not whether male patients develop erotic transferences toward their female analysts — of course they do — but whether there are general differences in its manifestations, due to gender, in this particular dyad.

A paucity exists in the literature of reports of fully developed, sustained erotic transferences by male patients in analysis with female analysts. This dearth is in obvious contrast to the preponderance