{"title":"On counter-transference 1","authors":"P. Heimann","doi":"10.4324/9780429475931-3","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This short note on counter-transference has been stimulated by certain observations I made in seminars and control analyses. I have been struck by the widespread belief amongst candidates that the countertransference is nothing but a source of trouble. Many candidates are afraid and feel guilty when they become aware of feelings towards their patients and consequently aim at avoiding any emotional response and at becoming completely unfeeling and ‘detached’. When I tried to trace the origin of this ideal of the ‘detached’ analyst, I found that our literature does indeed contain descriptions of the analytic work which can give rise to the notion that a good analyst does not feel anything beyond a uniform and mild benevolence towards his patients, and that any ripple of emotional waves on this smooth surface represents a disturbance to be overcome. This may possibly derive from a misreading of some of Freud’s statements, such as his comparison with the surgeon’s state of mind during an operation, or his simile of the mirror. At least these have been quoted to me in this connection in discussions on the nature of the counter-transference. On the other hand, there is an opposite school of thought, like that of Ferenczi, which not only acknowledges that the analyst has a wide variety of feelings towards his patient, but recommends that he should at times express them openly. In her warm-hearted paper ‘Handhabung der bertragung auf Grund der Ferenczischen Versuche’ (Int. Zeitschr. f. Psychoanal., Bd. XXII, 1936) Alice Balint suggested that such honesty on the part of the analyst is helpful and in keeping with the respect for truth inherent in psycho-analysis. While I admire her attitude, I cannot agree with her conclusions. Other analysts again have claimed that it makes the analyst more ‘human’ when he expresses his feelings to his patient and that it helps him to build up a ‘human’ relationship with him. For the purpose of this paper I am using the term ‘counter-transference’ to cover all the feelings which the analyst experiences towards his patient. It may be argued that this use of the term is not correct, and that counter-transference simply means transference on the part of the analyst. However, I would suggest that the prefix ‘counter’ implies additional factors. In passing it is worth while remembering that transference feelings cannot be sharply divided from those which refer to another person in his own right and not as a parent substitute. It is often pointed out that not everything a patient feels about his analyst is due to transference, and that, as the analysis progresses, he becomes increasingly more capable of ‘realistic’ feelings. This warning itself shows that the differentiation between the two kinds of feelings is not always easy.","PeriodicalId":218822,"journal":{"name":"Influential Papers from the 1950s","volume":"41 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2018-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"156","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Influential Papers from the 1950s","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429475931-3","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 156
Abstract
This short note on counter-transference has been stimulated by certain observations I made in seminars and control analyses. I have been struck by the widespread belief amongst candidates that the countertransference is nothing but a source of trouble. Many candidates are afraid and feel guilty when they become aware of feelings towards their patients and consequently aim at avoiding any emotional response and at becoming completely unfeeling and ‘detached’. When I tried to trace the origin of this ideal of the ‘detached’ analyst, I found that our literature does indeed contain descriptions of the analytic work which can give rise to the notion that a good analyst does not feel anything beyond a uniform and mild benevolence towards his patients, and that any ripple of emotional waves on this smooth surface represents a disturbance to be overcome. This may possibly derive from a misreading of some of Freud’s statements, such as his comparison with the surgeon’s state of mind during an operation, or his simile of the mirror. At least these have been quoted to me in this connection in discussions on the nature of the counter-transference. On the other hand, there is an opposite school of thought, like that of Ferenczi, which not only acknowledges that the analyst has a wide variety of feelings towards his patient, but recommends that he should at times express them openly. In her warm-hearted paper ‘Handhabung der bertragung auf Grund der Ferenczischen Versuche’ (Int. Zeitschr. f. Psychoanal., Bd. XXII, 1936) Alice Balint suggested that such honesty on the part of the analyst is helpful and in keeping with the respect for truth inherent in psycho-analysis. While I admire her attitude, I cannot agree with her conclusions. Other analysts again have claimed that it makes the analyst more ‘human’ when he expresses his feelings to his patient and that it helps him to build up a ‘human’ relationship with him. For the purpose of this paper I am using the term ‘counter-transference’ to cover all the feelings which the analyst experiences towards his patient. It may be argued that this use of the term is not correct, and that counter-transference simply means transference on the part of the analyst. However, I would suggest that the prefix ‘counter’ implies additional factors. In passing it is worth while remembering that transference feelings cannot be sharply divided from those which refer to another person in his own right and not as a parent substitute. It is often pointed out that not everything a patient feels about his analyst is due to transference, and that, as the analysis progresses, he becomes increasingly more capable of ‘realistic’ feelings. This warning itself shows that the differentiation between the two kinds of feelings is not always easy.
这篇关于反移情的短文是我在研讨会和控制分析中观察到的。候选人普遍认为反移情只会带来麻烦,这让我很震惊。许多候选者在意识到他们对病人的感觉时,会感到害怕和内疚,因此他们试图避免任何情绪反应,并变得完全冷漠和“超然”。当我试图追溯“超然的”精神分析师这一理想的起源时,我发现,我们的文献确实包含了对精神分析工作的描述,这些描述可能会产生这样一种观念,即一个好的精神分析师对他的病人除了统一而温和的仁慈之外,不会有任何感觉,在这一光滑表面上的任何情绪波动都代表着一种需要克服的干扰。这可能源于对弗洛伊德的一些陈述的误读,比如他与外科医生在手术中的心理状态的比较,或者他对镜子的比喻。至少在讨论反移情的性质时,我在这方面引用了这些。另一方面,有一个相反的学派,如Ferenczi,不仅承认分析师对他的病人有各种各样的感受,而且建议他有时应该公开表达这些感受。在她的热情洋溢的论文“Handhabung der bertragung auf Grund der Ferenczischen Versuche”中。Zeitschr。f。Psychoanal。爱丽丝·巴林特(Alice Balint)认为,分析师的这种诚实是有帮助的,并且符合精神分析中固有的对真理的尊重。虽然我欣赏她的态度,但我不能同意她的结论。其他分析师再次声称,当分析师向病人表达自己的感受时,这让他更“人性化”,并有助于他与病人建立一种“人性化”的关系。为了本文的目的,我使用“反移情”一词来涵盖精神分析师对他的病人所经历的所有感受。也许有人会说,这种用法是不正确的,反移情仅仅意味着分析者的移情。然而,我认为前缀“counter”暗示了其他因素。顺便提一下,值得记住的是,移情的感觉不能与那些指的是另一个人自己的权利而不是作为父母的替代品的感觉截然分开。人们经常指出,并不是病人对他的精神分析师的所有感觉都是由于移情,而且,随着分析的进行,他变得越来越有“现实”的感受能力。这个警告本身表明,区分这两种感觉并不总是那么容易。