Erotic Countertransference
Erotic Countertransference
Erotic Countertransference
Transference: bringing unconscious layers of a past relationship into the clinical relationship
Countertransference: Differentiating what the client evokes in the therapist from what the
therapist evokes in the client (transference). Often part of a historical understanding that the
therapist is to remain absolutely neutral and that countertransference is unhealthy and to be
controlled or thought away.
Parallel process: overlaying one way of relating into another (often bringing therapist-client
transference-countertransference into the supervisory relationship)
“Clearly, we are still quaking from (and recovering from the trauma of) the
classical depriving stance of abstinence, neutrality, and anonymity, whether
occurring in our own personal treatments, supervisions, or other aspects of
training. We can be tempted to overcorrect by emphasizing the mutual
dimension of the analytic frame. It is, however, an oversimplification of the
analytic process and contract.” (Celenza 2014, 73)
The interaction spectrum (based on Bolognini 1994)
Erotised Erotic Affectionate Loving
Psychoanalytic stage psychotic neurotic immature oedipal mature oedipal
(paranoid- schizoid) (depressive)
Treated as... ... lover ... if lover ... if wants to be lover ... if could be
lover
Verbal Demands “Don’t you want to “Why are you “If I treat you specially “Do you already
sleep with me?” leaving me to see will you treat me know I really
other clients?” specially too?” care for you?”
Primal relation Me against Mother as Father as (Basic assumption (Man-God-Man)
the world other rival groups)