The analyst's theory
A third source of countertransference
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8971482 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Stephen D Purcell (2116 Sutter Street, San Francisco, CA 94115, USA‐, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2004 |
| Volume | 85 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 635-652 |
| Publication date | 2004-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The International Journal of Psychoanalysis (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-7578 • E-ISSN: 1745-8315 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1516/002075704774200780 |
| PMID | 15228701 |
| OpenAlex | W4234122141 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 10 |
| References cited | 4 |
The author asserts that the analyst's theory, personal and/or academic, is an important source of countertransference which complicates our traditional understanding of the analyst's emotional responses as being constructed from a mix of his transferences and the patient's effects on him. From this perspective, theory--because it has no intrinsic relevance to the essential phenomena of individual analytic processes--may be a confounding, as well as a necessary, factor in clinical work. Although the analyst's theory might be conceptualized as a component of his personality that shapes his emotional reactions to a patient, the author believes that there is a valuable increment of conceptual clarity and additional clinical utility to thinking about a more direct role of theory in the process of countertransference formation. He uses aspects of the clinical analysis of narcissistic resistances to illustrate how some theories might predispose an analyst to confounding unconscious enactments by generating either positive or negative countertransferences which can be used defensively by the patient and/or analyst. He also illustrates how, in some contexts, an analyst's theory might attenuate potentially informative countertransference reactions and interfere in this way with the analyst's apprehension of the patient's psychic functioning. Finally the author addresses the importance of 'fit' between an analyst's working theory and a patient's psychopathology, and considers implications of his ideas for psychoanalytic training and practice
Apprehension · CLARITY · Cognitive psychology · Countertransference · Epistemology · Personality · Perspective (graphical · Psychic · Psychoanalysis · Psychoanalytic theory · Psychotherapist · Relevance (law · Transference · Unconscious mind · Personality Disorders and Psychopathology · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Social Psychology · Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy
Dissociation
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(Imagining) Erotic Mutuality
On Terminating, Ending, and Not Ending
Desire and Responsibility
Beginning the Treatment on a Personal Note
The analyst's excitement in the analysis of perversion
The analyst’s excitement in the analysis of perversion
Nothing Could Be Further From the Truth”
The Dark Side of Analytic Conviction
| Unique citing works | 10 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,45 |
| Citation span | 2004 - 2025 (22) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 10 |