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In recent years, there has been more attention to analysts' thoughts and behaviors within the analytic situation. In this paper, I will identify some of the ideas that shed light on the emotional reactions of the analyst to the patient. Because it is difficult to categorize the reactions of the analyst, my remarks are incomplete and heuristic in intention. My comments are divided into three categories: (1) prescribed attitudes for the analyst towards the analytic situation, (2) empirical descriptions of the analyst's reactions and how these descriptions have evolved over time. Here, I will cover reactions to the work with patients that are narrowly defined as countertransference or enactment, as well as general reactions of analysts to patients. I will include how the analyst's character structure shapes his reactions under the subheadings of Inside—Outside Paradox, Patient—Analyst Match, The Analytic Group, and Translations. I will give some further examples of empirical data that describe the complexity of the analytic interaction with a focus on the analyst's subjective feelings. (3) The last category is the development of the analyst, how it compares in contrast with theories of adult development concerning other professions.
Throughout this paper, I use the masculine gender for patient and analyst, except for the clinical vignette.