Erotic Transference and Countertransference: Clinical Practice in Psychotherapy. Edited by David Mann.  Routledge. Pp.  viii + 190.

Whilst investigating the representation of psychaoanlysis in film, I found that a major theme, from Spellbound to Prince of Titles, involved the analyst and patient coming together as a loving/sexual couple.

This stereotype, or caricature, of the patient's falling in love with the analyst, and vice versa, generalises to modern culture as a whole. It also exercised Freud in the early days of psychoanalysis, especially when it directly affected his protégés such as Jung and Ferenczi. This is ironic when, as David Mann and others point out in this volume, a full discussion of the erotic transference and countertransference has been lacking in the psychoanalytic literature of the last fifty years until relatively recently. Mann's aim is not to be

…fully representative of this extensive topic. Rather, it is the intention to illustrate how erotic narratives may be understood in different tongues.

To this end, the ten contributors represent a ‘wide variety of psychoanalytic perspectives’, namely Kleinian, Lacanian, Jungian, Kohutian and Independent. There are three broad sections, with overlap, examining ‘Love and the erotic’ from a developmental point of view, ‘Progressive and regressive aspects of the erotic transference and countertransference’ and ‘Sexual abuse and its impact on psychotherapy’. I recognise, from my own practice, the sentiment expressed by Tauber, and quoted by David Mann:

I have thought for a long time that what strongly blocks us is a profound unease in dealing with love, affection and tenderness in our work; we have acknowledged the need to deal with anxiety, hate, rage etc. but are unclear about and evasive with love, affection and tenderness.

This compact volume goes a long way towards helping one to think about, and conceptualise, the many faces of Eros, ranging from sexual feelings and their enactments, to love as something separate from the sexual. In a climate where boundary violations in therapy have been shown to be more prevalent than previous