The affective experience of the child analyst and the concept of countertransference
Keywords:
Child analysis, Countertransference, Analyst’s resistance, TransferenceAbstract
Three clinical vignettes illustrate the strong, difficult and complex feelings aroused in child analysts by their child and adolescent patients and their parents. It is noted that even among colleagues, these emotional responses are acknowledged reluctantly, if at all, and rarely reported in the literature – which is consequently sparse. An outstanding exception is Berta Bornstein’s 1948 paper which is reviewed. Using the concept of countertransference as a touchstone, personal and clinical experiences are culled to draw attention to the prevalence of these controversial, elusive and unsettling reactions in virtually every treatment. But the lecture’s main objective is to encourage child analysts to recognize the legitimacy of their emotional responses and, while not seeking one to one correspondence with unacceptable feelings in the patient, find technically useful ways to integrate such insights as may result into their daily work with patients, parents, and supervisees.
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