Transference and Countertransference: A Unifying Focus of Psychoanalysis

Since Freud's initial papers on transference and countertransference, these vast and inexhaustible subjects have occupied psychoanalysts. Transference and countertransference, the essence of the patient/analyst relationship, are concepts so central to psychoanalysis that, to our minds, they transcend theoretical orientation and, thus, can be seen as the unifying focus of psychoanalysis. However differently theoretical traditions conceptualize the transference, or disagree as to when and how to interpret it in our everyday analytic work, we all embrace the phenomena as vital to psychic change.The ten contributors to this book describe work involving the transference and countertransference, with links frequently made between such work and psychic change. These are accounts of the analyst at work, detailed clinical accounts of what can be considered to be the bread and salt of psychoanalysis, set within a theoretical framework. The theoretical viewpoints put forth are varied, encompassing Kleinian, Independent, and Contemporary Freudian theoretical orientations, and, as such, represent the varied orientations of the members of the British Psychoanalytic Association.The psychoanalytic relationship is examined, in its positive and negative aspects. This includes fine-grained observations and interpretations as well as broader views of the emotional relationship with the analyst, with many clinical illustrations. The psychoanalytic practitioner, as well as the specialist reader, will find the studies of transference work in this book helpful in understanding the factors leading toward psychic change and the working-through of unconscious emotional dilemmas.

Table of Contents:
Introduction -- Prelude -- Why reconstruct? Perspectives on reconstruction within the transference -- Here and now interpretations -- Sexuality and the analytic couple -- From Hades to Oedipus: from psychotic to erotic transference and beyond -- A five-bar gate: love and hate in the structure of the mind -- Terror, impasse, hope: fragmentation as resistance -- Phobic attachments: internal impediments to change -- Two impulses to end an analysis: exploring the trasference and countertransference -- The elusive concept of analytic survival

About the Author :
Dr Jean Arundale is a founder member and training and supervising analyst of the British Psychoanalytic Association (BPA), and is currently on the BPA Board as Chair of the Scientific Committee. She is a Senior Member and training and supervising analyst of the British Association of Psychotherapists. She works in private practice, has taught on training courses, is a part-time consultant psychotherapist in the NHS at Guy's Hospital, and is a past editor of the British Journal of Psychotherapy. She has published a number of psychoanalytic papers, and co-edited Terrorism and War, published by Karnac in 2002. Debbie Bandler Bellman is Member of Council, Vice Chair of Psychoanalytic Training and Education Division and Member of Scientific Committee, British Psychoanalytic Association, Honorary Secretary. She has worked as a psychotherapist in St George's Hospital, London and the Anna Freud Centre in London and the Brent Adolescent Centre. She has also worked in private practice, lectured, and led seminars. She has edited the Journal of Child Psychotherapy and contributed to many journals as well as to Adolescent Breakdown and Beyond (edited by Moses Laufer).

Review :
Contributors: Jean Arundale, Debbie Bandler Bellman, Ruth Berkowitz, Sara Collins, Irene Freeden, Michael Halton, Jan Harvie-Clark, Viqui Rosenberg, Philip Roys and Jessica Sacret Hering.