A New Analytic Dyad

Homosexual Analyst, Heterosexual Patient

Bibliographic Data

ID8333493
AuthorsSidney H Phillips (Yale School of Medicine; faculty, Western New England Institute for Psychoanalysis, corresponding author)
Year1998
Volume46
Issue4
Pages1195-1219
Publication date1998-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-0651 • E-ISSN: 1941-2460
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/00030651980460041001
PMID9934662
OpenAlexW2141226826
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited13

The paradoxical thesis is presented that the extraordinary aspect of the analytic experience of a homosexual male analyst and his heterosexual male analysand is that it was ordinary, that the fundamental processes of transference, countertransference, and analysis of defense and resistance were determinative. The unique variations of these processes with this particular patient are explored. The patient entered treatment unaware of the analyst's homosexuality, which he discovered during the analysis. The course of this discovery, its transformations, its defensive uses, its transference meanings, and its fate in the termination are delineated. Through viewing the patient's reactions to the analyst's homosexuality as potential entry points to the transference, the analytic process was enhanced and facilitated

Countertransference · Dyad · Homosexuality · Male Homosexuality · Psychoanalysis · Psychoanalytic theory · Resistance (ecology) · Transference · Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology · Medicine · Personality Disorders and Psychopathology · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Social Psychology