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Countertransference is a phenomenon once felt, according to James Kern (1978), “to hold the same relationship to psychoanalytic work as wound infection holds to surgery” (p. 40). It was an indication of the therapist's inadequacy, something to be overcome, rooted out. As theory has evolved over the years, however, this view of counter-transference has changed and it is now often seen as an important and creative tool in the therapeutic process.
This paper will present two related ideas dealing with the value of countertransference in psychoanalytic treatment. The first shows how the therapist's awareness and use of his or her own emotional responses leads to a better understanding of the patient, plus a change within the therapist, both of which contribute to that process within the patient that we call change, growth, cure.
The second presents ways the therapist can combine intellectual processes with awareness of sensory experiences — visual images, kinesthetic sensations, olfactory, and auditory cues — to heighten awareness of countertransference, the unconscious process that can so easily elude the therapist and so quickly detract from effectiveness.
Both ideas connect the experiences of the therapist with that of the artist, particularly the performer, who uses the medium of self to create art. They relate to the thought that therapy (as Freud once said) is an art form and the therapeutic process is a creative process — creative for the patient, for the therapist, and for the relationship between them.
Countertransference has undergone a major re-evaluation since first discovered by Freud. Otto Kernberg (1965) describes two approaches to the idea. The first, the classical approach, similar to Freud's definition, sees countertransference as the “unconscious reaction of the