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It is not unusual today for us to find contemporary literature supporting the totalistic view of countertransference as a valuable tool with which we may understand our patients' psychodynamics. And this recent work by Arthur Robbins offers us a unique method through which we may elicit, acknowledge, and work through our countertransference conflicts in a way that leads to an increased breadth and depth of understanding not only of our patients, but of ourselves as well.
In his Foreword the author explains the historical factors that led to the evolution of his concept of specialized countertransference-focused Supervision Groups. It is the in-depth exploration of several specific group experiences that lays the framework of this book. The Foreword and first chapter serve to orient the reader with regard to the theoretical aspects of the following material, which is presented as modified transcripts of these sessions. For these chapters, sessions were chosen to illustrate the power and effectiveness of this vital technique of countertransference supervision, as well as to explore a variety of timely countertransference issues, such as collusion, working with a terminally ill patient, homosexual anxiety, and greed, to mention only a few. Introductory, ongoing, and closing comments by the author provide us with a rare view of the delicate balance between cognitive and affective processes that the group leader must experience, integrate, and formulate into practical interventions within this challenging approach to processing clinical material.
Robbins' approach is to begin with a group of therapists or analysts who have experienced a good deal of personal analysis. Participants are invited individually to present and explore their affective reactions to a current clinical case, while the group is invited to respond with their emotional reaction to the case, the presenter, and other group members as they also respond. The result is a powerful experience combining both af