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If Thou is said, the I of the combination I-Thou is said along with it.
… a human being who actually exists must be somewhere.
Countertransference, a favorite topic in many psychoanalytic circles since the 1950s, has been until recently less than prominent in the literature, and particularly in the case studies, of self psychology. Two questions thus emerge: (1) Has the study of countertransference become peripheral in self psychology, and if so, why? (2) Is the conception useful or necessary in self psychology, and if so, how? A consideration of this second question will involve some discussion of recent developments in philosophical hermeneutics. This discussion will clarify the central claim of this chapter, namely, that a self-psychological understanding of the psychoanalytic process requires some notion like countertransference. It will also become clear that we need to distinguish the narrower from the more inclusive meaning of the term.
In part two of this chapter I use a broad conception of counter-transference as the whole of the analyst's experience of the analytic relationship. For the sake of clarity I suggest renaming this inclusive notion. In this first section, however, the word countertransference will mean whatever the theorist under discussion apparently intends, whether or not that theorist defines it.