The earliest example of a countertransference feeling about a patient appearing in an analyst's dream can be seen in Freud's dream about Irma, which he dreamt in 1895 and reported on in 1900. Freud's irritation with his patient for not following his advice and his reproaches to her in the dream clearly seem geared to undo the wounds to his narcissism which he suffered at the hands of his friends and colleagues because his patient had not been completely cured by him. While Freud does not discuss the dream from the point of view of countertransference, it seems clear from his tone of apology in writing of his anger toward Irma, that he had managed to effect some degree of resolution of his feelings toward his patient as a result of the analysis of this dream.

In the author's own experience, cognizance of countertransference attitudes toward patients through the analysis of the occasional dreams about them which occur, has been of help in