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Collusion designates a specific type of transference-countertransference interaction between two or more persons, linked by an unconscious and shared unresolved issue, which they avoid on an intrapsychic level by externalizing it in the interpersonal space. To find a way to identify collusion and to delineate it from other transference-countertransference interactions. We conducted this study based on a case series approach. The study material consisted of audiotaped clinicians-centered supervisions with oncologists. The case series methodology involved the systematic examination of a purposive sample of supervisions, with the aim to understand how and why they differ from one another with respect to the relational dynamic between the physician and his/her patient. Four cases/supervisions were selected as they allowed to situate collusion on the spectrum of transference-countertransference interactions. We report on it by describing a countertransference reaction, two transference-countertransference interactions, and a collusion. The study reveals the challenges and pitfalls of research on collusion. The results allow to confirm the criteria of our working definition of collusion and to delineate collusion from other transference-countertransference interactions, which represents a first step for the empirical investigation of collusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores clinical work concerning a group of gender-questioning natal males who experienced physical difficulties in childhood. The author argues that these individuals develop a transgender (trans) identity as a defence mechanism against the psychological challenges associated with development, particularly the struggles of forming a distinct mind and identity. Anxieties related to physical health may have contributed to the formation of an anxious attachment to their primary caregiver, perceived as intrusive and demanding. Moreover, these individuals struggle to identify with their fathers, often experiencing them as distant, absent, or unsupportive of their relationship with the mother or other primary caregiver, thereby hindering separation from the primary attachment figure. These early experiences may lead to difficulties in acknowledging and owning their evolving sexuality and aggression, as well as in bearing the necessary guilt associated with separating from the primary caregiver. Consequently, the individual may fantasise about relinquishing identification with an idealised version of themselves and replacing it with a liberated version capable of living autonomously. Through a composite case, the paper illustrates how these conflicts manifest in the therapeutic setting through transference dynamics. Themes explored include gender dysphoria, confusion, adolescence, and transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychoanalytic theory and practice consider both transference and countertransference as cornerstones for understanding those complicated psychological phenomena which psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy bring to light. The relationship between a patient and a psychoanalyst has been the crucial point on which our attention and interest is focused. In the intersubjective space of psychoanalytic psychotherapy, all interactions between the patient and the analyst are considered to mutually influence each participant of the analytic dyad. Together with patients, clinicians get involved in ambiguous, uncanny and unavoidable enactments. The understanding of the latter requires from a psychoanalyst not only to contain the patient's anxiety and reflect on the patient's inner feelings but also to stay open to the gamut of feelings, anxieties and conflicts that arise from the professional's experience. I suggest that accomplishing the complicated task of understanding both the patient's and his own feelings and experience leads the analyst to the necessity of restoring links with himself. By means of clinical material, I make an attempt to show how the process of understanding an uncanny enactment becomes for the therapist a process of restoring the links in countertransference which, in turn, enables the therapist to interpret the patient's specific difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Palliative care clinicians enhance the illness experiences of patients and their families through building therapeutic relationships. Many psychological concepts underlie a clinician's approach to a specific patient. Through high-yield tips, this article highlights ten selected psychological elements that palliative care clinicians often use to support patients. As we all (both clinicians and patients) bring our own histories and unique biographies to the work of palliative care, a more explicit focus on the psychological aspects of this work can enhance our own experience and efficacy as providers. With a thoughtful focus on the psychological aspects of how we engage with patients, palliative care clinicians can offer a more meaningful therapeutic encounter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutional transference is a phenomenon describing patients' attitudes toward the institutions where they receive mental health or medical care. While transference toward individual clinicians in palliative care has been described, attitudes of patients with serious illness toward the institutions where they receive specialized care have not been described. Here, we present three cases which demonstrate the phenomenon of institutional transference in patients with serious illness and the resulting clinical implications, which include countertransferential responses of clinicians caring for them. We consider three conditions: (1) the idealized reputation of the academic cancer center, often a tertiary referral center; (2) loss of an institutional connection during care transitions; and (3) countertransferential reactions to institutional transference. We highlight characteristics and personality styles of individuals with cancer that may complicate and intensify institutional transference and identify potential interventions to address common challenges associated with institutional transference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I explore some similarities between experiences of music and of analytic sessions. I focus on qualities of evanescence, the way that music – in contrast to many other arts – in one perspective only lasts as long as it is actually being played. Then it's over. The analyst-patient discussion in a session is similar. Yet the psychic reverberations of some transient, fugitive moments may last a lifetime. And even when no verbally profound understanding is occurring, nevertheless the patient-analyst encounter is emotionally significant. I illustrate this with a clinical example. I explore transference as illusion, and the relationship between truth and illusion in terms of Bion's O. I end with thoughts about the paradoxical value of the illusoriness of aesthetics and nature as considered by Freud in his short paper "On Transience" (1916), and the grin of Lewis Carol's Cheshire Cat, left hanging in the air. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is life-long, childhood-onset, posttraumatic developmental disorder where chronic early-life maltreatment and attachment disturbances prevents the child's development of a continuous sense of self across emotional states, relationships, and social contexts. As development proceeds, these self-states acquire a sense of themselves, a capacity for information processing, memory, emotion, and behavior. Conceptualizing DID involves paradoxes and apparent contradictions. DID has been categorized as a severe mental illness with major psychiatric comorbidities. Studies show that DID individuals have a unique personality organization with repeated, often covert posttraumatic reactivity, especially in relationships (e.g., therapy). Paradoxically, research shows that, during development, DID individuals preserve psychological resiliencies consistent with responsivity to long-term, psychodynamically informed treatment. These include, when not stressed, capacities for therapeutic alliance, reality testing, and observing ego. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP) is an empirically supported treatment for borderline personality disorder (BPD) that improves functioning via targeting representations of self affectively relating to others, particularly as evoked in the therapeutic relationship. If change in TFP operates as theorized, then shifts in patterns of "self affectively relating to others" should be observed in the transference prior to shifts in daily relationships. Using ecological momentary assessment (EMA), a patient with BPD rated daily interpersonal events for 2-week periods during 18 months of TFP; at 9 and 18 months these ratings included interactions with the therapist. Results suggest that positive perceptions of her therapist that ran counter to her negatively biased perception in other relationships preceded changes in her perceptions of others. EMA shifts corresponded to improvements in self-reported symptoms, interview-based personality functioning, and therapist assessments. Implications for assimilation of a trusting experience with the therapist as a mechanism of change in TFP are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a presentation of the concept "transference" in psycho-analysis. In Freud's thought, transference movements are new editions, copies of tendencies or phantasies that are the repetition of infantile prototypes, relived with a lively feeling of actuality. The text shows Freud's reflection on transference, and the importance of the countertransference which has been much developed by the post-freudians authors. Then, the principal forms of transference are presented, for example passionate transference, or transference by reversal. The psychoanalytic reflection about transference leads to study the analyst's neutrality, and to pay attention to the setting of the sessions. André Green emphasizes that the transference that is addressed to the analyst is at the same time a transference on the setting and on to speech. In the complexity of the "analytic situation" (Donnet), speech is transformed under the effect of the transference address (Rolland). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This brief introduction gives an historical outline of the development of the concept of transference in the different psychoanalytic traditions. It goes back to the various meanings of the German term "Übertragung" – transference, transcription, transmission, transposition and assignment – and how they were accentuated by the different psychoanalytic schools. The paper depicts the transition from a mainly intrapsychic understanding of transference as repetition to a more bipersonal and intersubjective approach exploring the different meanings of "intersubjectivity" and the forces that operate within the analytic field. Major developments arose from a new understanding of the role of the analyst's countertransference and the detection of transference mechanisms in narcissistic, borderline and psychotic states. The exploration of different forms of splitting and projective and introjective identification deepened the understanding of the analytic communication and led to concepts like "acting in", role-responsiveness, "actualization" and "enactment". As the author tries to show, all these approaches can find a legitimization in Freud's original writings, but the main differences concern technical issues, i.e. the interpretation of transference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout this essay the author analyzes the concept of transcendence in Jung's theoretical corpus with a focus on its philosophical parameters and therapeutic efficacy in promoting a category of value. Although Jung did not precisely define the terms transcendence, transcendent, and transcendental, it is necessary to tease out these features in order to illuminate the varieties of transcendence in Jung's thought. Distinctions are made between the ontological, epistemological, and phenomenological dimensions of transcendence, including the structure, method, form, and process of mediating, transitioning, and transforming inner experience. Jung's notion of the dialectic operative within the transcendent function is specifically critiqued. Here the author explores the possibility of a synthesis of internal opposition that leads to a greater principle of unity through the sublation of psyche. He further examines the transcendent function in the process of active imagination by drawing on patient material derived through associations in the analysis of the transference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increase in the number of people living beyond age 90 pose challenges to mental health professionals, many of whom still harbor ageist notions concerning the efficacy of psychotherapy for the oldest old. This paper demonstrates how integrated psychotherapy with an oldest old woman can provide opportunities for integration and personal growth. Integrated psychotherapy based on self-psychology psychodynamic approach, was provided to a woman from age 90 to 100 concerning age-related changes and losses and unresolved traumatic experiences in life. which troubled her notwithstanding previous efforts to resolve them. Over the course of almost ten years, the client came to terms with her aging losses, experiences, worked through the therapeutic process, and learned how to express and accept her deepest feelings, thereby achieving psychological well-being and internal peace. Psychotherapy for the oldest old may contribute to their well-being by offering significant opportunities to process and understand major events and unresolved issues along the life cycle. This study demonstrates that the older self is flexible and capable of growth, even as physical health wanes. Transference and countertransference reactions between therapists and clients can be instrumental in understanding and improving the well-being of the oldest old. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Looking at Paul B. Preciado's relationship to psychoanalysis across texts, but especially the recent book Can the Monster Speak?: A Report to an Academy of Psychoanalysts, I seek to disentangle a possible vision for a new psychoanalysis from Preciado's concerns, ambivalence and disgust with the professional field. I call this a somato-militant psychoanalysis that leans on Freud's notion of conversion as the creation of a parasitic traumatic kernel that insists on the side of the body and shows a potential for mutuation, transference, amplified potentia gaudendi, surgical intervention and a radical exteriorization of the subject through access to desire. This somatic archival work runs against an idea of psychoanalysis as merely a privatization and interiorization of the subject, a site for upholding the colonial-patriarchal regime of gender norms and an attempt at therapeutic re-territorialization. In the end, the meeting between Preciado and psychoanalysis is given a name: terminal, meaning both at the very limit, the end point, and incurable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Working through the different faces and vicissitudes of the death drive in the countertransference, and especially through projective identification, is a very challenging process. A thorough and versatile process of containment and working through of the manifold threatening expressions and influences of the death drive is required, experienced most specifically and deeply in the arena of projective identification. This paper demonstrates how each aspect that unfolds in the analyst's countertransference sheds light on a particular layer of anxiety and internal object relations related to it. The creation of a new meaning to the differing expressions of the death drive gradually lessens the compulsion to repeat and enables a better integration between the life and death drives. This process will be illustrated by a prolonged clinical case that involved intense internal working through of the death drive in the analyst's countertransference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how the therapeutic relationship facilitates intrapsychic and behavioral changes in both the patient and the analyst. Key elements of the therapeutic relationship are reviewed, including transference, countertransference, introjective and projective identification, as well as the "real relationship." Special attention is paid to the "transformative relationship," which is a special kind of bond that develops between analyst and patient that is unique and transformative. It consists of mutual respect, emotional intimacy, trust, understanding, and affection. Empathic attunement is a key element in the evolution of a transformative relationship. This attunement optimally promotes intrapsychic and behavioral changes in both the patient and the analyst. This process is illustrated by a case presentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author presents a clinical psychoanalysis in which his Jewish patient fears that her non‐Jewish analyst hates her for being Jewish. Antisemitic expressions of hate toward the analyst have been well‐documented, but a fear of the analyst's hateful transference to the patient has not been previously examined in a published report. This transference led to an impasse in the treatment and prompted exploration of countertransference on the analyst's part; was he, unconsciously, expressing any religious hatred? The author examines a technical question of whether such a transference can be analyzed in the usual way as a displacement of infantile trauma? Or do the antisemitic aspects of the transference need to be examined and understood in their cultural and religious implications first and then analyzed as a real aspect in the external world before its infantile roots can be exposed? In this particular case, the author concludes that the latter approach is necessary and useful to facilitating clinical progress. The author suggests that this approach may be applicable to other analyses where there are racial, class, or religious differences and the patient develops fears about the analyst's attitude. The author offers this case as an example of the necessary integration of cultural and sociological issues into the classical model of intrapsychic conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reactive countertransference is nontherapeutic, whereas responsive countertransference is an integral aspect of psychotherapy when the psychotherapist is attuned to the client's affect and needs. Personal examples are used to illustrate the concepts of responsive and reactive countertransference. Awareness and use of each form of countertransference is essential. The psychotherapist's stance of presence and involvement delineates the necessary elements of an effective relationally focused psychotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital divide is defined as the distance between those individuals and communities that have access to digital resources such as high-speed internet and user-friendly, sophisticated computing interfaces and those that lack such resources. If empathy is understood as being fully present with another person without judgment, evaluation, or anything else added, then being present in the same physical space (such as a therapist's office) is arguably the optimum approach. Yet the genie is out of the bottle. This article engages with new forms of countertransference, parapraxes (slips), and breakdowns in empathy occasioned by taking psychodynamic therapy online including the advantages and disadvantages, the trade-offs, of each approach. It is just as misguided to require therapists exclusively to perform in-person therapy as it would be for everyone exclusively to perform online therapy. There is no turning back the clock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A redefinition of insight-type events is presented, an initial attempt to view insight in terms of behavior analysis in the clinical context and relevant variables are suggested for their study. This definition assumes the insight as a novel behavior that involves the search for solutions to psychological problems. Solving a problem is discovering an effective behavior pattern, based on the creation of verbal rules that help the client to reach the solution. In this problem-solving process, a new behavior emerges, explained through the solution of a transfer task. The theoretical proposal exposed allows a better understanding of this phenomenon, overcoming the problems of mentalist conceptions about the term of insight, and contributes to a better understanding of some relevant elements of change process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) has been rapidly gaining popularity over the last several decades. It's been a heady and exciting time for those leading the way in this cutting-edge healing field. Now EFT is coming of age with the establishment of Clinical EFT, which has been validated extensively in research studies to meet the designation of "evidence-based" practice. Extensive trainings in the methodology of Clinical EFT are being conducted all over the world, turning out fine practitioners, among them mental health clinicians, coaches, and lay people, who perform Clinical EFT in a technically excellent way. One area that has not yet been widely attended to, however, is that of the role of the healing relationship between practitioner and client. Many studies have shown the vital importance of the healing relationship in achieving the best treatment outcomes. This article is intended to explore one of the least understood aspects of that relationship: the interplay between client transference and practitioner countertransference. Many practitioners are not aware of the dynamic process of transference and countertransference that is present in the treatment room during EFT sessions. This article particularly focuses on the recognition and use of countertransference to help practitioners take advantage of the opportunities it provides and the pitfalls that should be avoided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the inscrutable state of at-one-ment, one (be)comes to know the other from the inside, to experience the other's experience as one's own, rather than like one's own. In the clinical setting, this occurrence is valuable in and of itself, even when it is not acknowledged or understood by the analytic pair, as it allows the enigmatic possibility of communicating the incommunicable that lies beyond words and relations, echoing the unique embryonic form of being and communicating. Such clinical occurrences invite us to reconsider the common formulations of transference and countertransference and move beyond their inherent notion of twoness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Freud tarafından ortaya atılan aktarım kavramı hastanın geçmiş deneyimleri ve öznel yapısına bağlı olarak oluşan ilişkilenme biçimlerinin analitik süreçte tekrarlanması olarak tanımlanmaktadır. Karşı aktarım ise birçok farklı görüş olsa da hastanın terapi sürecindeki söyleminin terapistte çeşitli duygulanımlar, bilinçdışı çatışmalar ve tutumlara yol açması olarak betimlenebilir. Literatürde, karşı aktarımın bilinçdışı niteliğinin yanında bilinç düzeyinde de çeşitli biçimlerde kendisini gösterdiğini savunan ve bu kapsamda karşı aktarımı niceliksel olarak inceleyen birçok çalışma bulunmaktadır. Bu çalışmanın amacı, terapistlerin karşı aktarımlarını ölçmek için geliştirilen Duygu Envanteri (Feeling Word Checklist) ölçeğinin kısa versiyonu olan Duygu Envanteri-Kısa Versiyon (DE-KV; Feeling Word Checklist-Brief Version) adlı ölçeğin psikometrik özelliklerinin Türk örnekleminde incelenmesidir. Çalışmanın örneklemi, farklı ekoller temelinde psikoterapi uygulayan 184 psikologdan oluşmaktadır. DE-KV öncelikle Türkçeye çevrilmiş ve Türk örnekleminde faktör yapısını incelemek amacıyla yürütülen doğrulayıcı faktör analizi bulguları, ölçeğin orijinali ile benzer olarak üç faktörlü bir yapıya sahip olduğunu desteklemiştir. Yürütülen güvenirlik ve geçerlik analizleri, ölçeğin psikometrik özelliklerinin yeterli düzeyde olduğunu göstermektedir. Tüm bulgular psikanalitik literatür ışığında tartışılmıştır. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ted has been teacher, colleague, and friend to me throughout my professional life. There was something about Ted's person that resonated with me. I felt his presence when I began training at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where I did my internship and clinical fellowship, and again as I was going through training at NYPSI. Once I graduated, I had the good fortune of being invited to a study group with Ted, Charlie Brenner, and many other senior analysts. I was most impressed with his ways of thinking, his humanity, which came across vividly in his work and in his responses to others. He had an openness and dedication to finding ways to reach each individual patient. I especially admired his emphasis on turning to the evidence from the patient, and his focus on really helping his patients with what was central to them, not having to stick to analytic rules. He was courageous in his willingness to present his careful analytic work when his focus on countertransference was not considered appropriate at the time, with much backlash from others. In terms of Ted's importance to psychoanalysis, starting in the 70ʹs, he focused in on an area of psychoanalysis that was quite undeveloped at the time – the analyst's use of his self, except for a few strong voices from the Kleinians (Heiman, 1950, Racker, 1953), though of course many others later. Ted could see the limitation of focusing only on the transference, omitting countertransference. He focused on "what's happening between us" before any concept of the "analytic third" or "co construction" had been born. So much focus was on the intrapsychic – the only focus of a "true" analyst, at a time when the interpersonal was viewed as "nonanalytic." He brought his analytic lens, studying the analytic data in the countertransference, to the benefit of the psychoanalytic community, a focus quite different from relational analysis and interpersonal analysis. His influence on my own work was powerful. The shared background of training in a place with many gifted and talented people, who all were seriously involved in trying to learn analysis and apply the work to patients, but with an openness to new ideas, to valuing the data from the patient above loyalty to a particular theory, the lens on one's own feelings, thoughts, fantasies, attitudes to facilitate the most full understanding of the patient, all have enriched my understanding and appreciation of the analytic process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines three therapy cases of Korean families to explore the factors that contributed to the male clients' experience of sex as pressure which led to sexual dysfunction. We used intra- and inter-case analysis to identify similarities and differences between the contributing factors in the cases. The contributing factors were psychological, in-law factors, marital communication factors, family of origin factors, and transference factors. Our findings suggest that interaction among these factors contributed to the husbands' experience of sex as pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored psychoanalytic supervisees' conceptualization of good supervision. Fourteen registered psychoanalytic psychotherapists recognized by the Irish Council for Psychotherapy were interviewed. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, interviews were analysed, and this process yielded two superordinate themes encompassing five subordinate themes. The superordinate theme providing illumination encapsulated the participants' experiences of illuminating the self and illuminating the client. The superordinate theme helping with emotional management referred to the participants' conceptualization of supervision as containing participants' difficult emotions, normalizing clinical difficulties and feeling accompanied. The findings are discussed in light of their implications for practice and theory. Of particular interest is the relief that participants felt when their fears and anxieties were addressed and worked through in supervision. In addition, the study builds a foundation for future research studies to explore the supervisee insight and identify more specific types of insight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers Ferenczi's views about the need for an adaptation of the analyst to the patient through a flexible management of time during some periods of the treatment and compares his ideas to the ones put forward by Bollas regarding day-long sessions that provide a new experience of care to the patient. The author argues that changes regarding the expansion of the analytic hour, adapting it to patients' needs, is an old but still valuable theme for experiencing the boundaries of clinical practice that also brings countertransference aspects into play. Clinical material is used to illustrate the discussion in a contemporary encounter with Ferenczi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author considers how through reenactments, early developmental trauma and potential impairments in personality functioning may manifest in the psychotherapeutic relationship and how such reenactments may be underpinned by the individual's need to control the intrapsychic dynamics through the use and control of interpersonal relationships. Some of the common transference manifestations are considered along with how they present fertile ground for resolution of the underlying internal conflicts. The article addresses this mainly through the theory and clinical examples from clients presenting with some level of personality impairment. In terms of psychotherapeutic technique, the author falls back on what he refers to as interpretive dynamic transactional analysis psychotherapy (IDTAP). There is a particular focus on reenactments of the destructive internal parts embedded in the client's attachment to the internal bad object. The dangers of the therapist's intention to provide the reparative relational experience are addressed along with the importance of analysis and resolution of the idealizing transference. The importance of the therapist's function to endure and contain the negative countertransference is also discussed. Some potential interventions aimed at improving personality functioning are considered as are the implications of working with extratransference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We all have narcissism, but in some cases, the perception of narcissism becomes extreme and pathological. Systematic research has shown that there are three subtypes typical of narcissistic personality disorder: the grandiose/oblivious, the vulnerable/hypervigilant, and the high-functioning subtype. Both biological and psychological factors are at work, but the true cause of pathological narcissism has not been established. The psychotherapy of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is complicated and often frustrating because of the difficulty in engaging a person with narcissistic personality disorder in a psychotherapeutic process. Suicide risk is not rare in patients with narcissism, particularly in the context of severe narcissistic injury, where the patient feels shamed and/or vilified. In conclusion, narcissistic patients are difficult to treat, but the risk of suicide makes it imperative for clinicians to stay involved in the treatment and assist the patient in understanding their vulnerabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "The End of Transference: A Contemporary Freudian Perspective" describes the work of a member of the British Contemporary Freudian Tradition. The author examines the end or purpose of transference and argues that the goal of transference is to end it, at least in its most problematic forms. They discuss key concepts such as transference, compulsive repetition, the analyst as a new object of development, and the real relationship. The article concludes with thoughts on the analyst's hope, which manifests in psychoanalysis as a developmental process in which transference plays a central role. [Extracted from the article]

This paper illustrates features of psychoanalytic psychotherapy with a young adolescent who had experienced adverse childhood events, culminating in cumulative trauma. This led to the atrophying of her 'sense of place' and 'place identity', both integral to the development of a sense of self. The patient's memory of places seemed to have been pulverised and required the contact and containment of the adult mind of the therapist to find recomposition. A therapeutic relationship developed, thanks to the sharing of objects and places which had become fragmented in the patient's mind. There was a need for locations, paths, places, indeed entire nations needed to be emotionally recomposed in the transference, to assume rudimentary but thinkable forms. The psychotherapy made it possible to find part of my young patient's memory through play, and the value of intensive but short-term work became evident. Psychotherapy allowed partial repair of the capacity for place attachment, which facilitated the exploration of the external world, the possibility of attachment to new places, and the construction of new place identities, alongside her developing sense of herself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines ethical principles and their application to erotic or romanticized transference and countertransference. Transference is identified as unconscious feelings of a client that are felt for another individual of significant importance such as a therapist. Countertransference describes the feelings a therapist may develop for clients they are working with throughout the course of therapy. Ethical principles that are explored consist of autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, fidelity, and justice. We explore how those principles relate to romantic or sexual feelings in therapy and discuss what therapists can do to appropriately and ethically handle those feelings in therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study deals with countertransference on the part of observers in analytical groups. It complements an earlier study by the same team on participants' feelings towards observers. In a content analytic evaluation of an anonymous survey conducted among group observers, only around a third of all response items, interestingly, referred to the observer's feelings towards participants, whereas about half of the items referred to the observer's own position as an observing person, and the remainder to the group leaders and other staff. In contrast, in the preceding complementary study almost all response items referred to the group participant's feelings towards observers. Almost all observers reported positive, sympathetic states of feeling touched or moved, while negative feelings towards participants were the exception. Where states of stress were reported, they referred to the setting or to situations by which the respondent felt stressed or productively impacted. Participants were found to be viewed consistently as individuals who were following a path that also concerned the observers themselves. The accompanying supervision was described as valuable and beneficial. By contrast, perceptions contained very little evidence in favour of views found in the literature according to which observers are able to provide support to group leaders by giving them feedback or by offering insight, through analysis of their own feelings, into unaddressed issues within the group. In a different setting this resource could possibly be made better use of. Clear evidence was found of idealizing transference from observers to group leaders. This can be readily explained as a natural phase in developing an identity as a therapist. The response items confirm the assumption that an important function of observers lies in "neutralizing participants' superego". Conversely, the reflective setting helped observers to attenuate their superego traits, thus promoting a lively development process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Histories of psychoanalysis largely respect the boundaries drawn by the psychoanalytic profession, suggesting that the development of psychoanalytic theories and techniques has been the exclusive remit of professionally trained analysts. In this article, I offer an historical example that poses a challenge to this orthodoxy. Based on extensive archival material, I show how British psychiatric social workers, a little-studied group of specialist mental hygiene workers, advanced key organisational, observational, and theoretical insights that shaped mid-century British psychoanalysis. In their daily work compiling patient histories, conducting home visits, and interviewing the parents of 'maladjusted' children, psychiatric social workers were uniquely positioned to expose the importance of family relationships in the development of childhood neuroses. As this article details, their analytic attention to these dynamics not only influenced, but fundamentally constituted the innovative research on maternal-child relationships and family therapy pioneered by eminent psychoanalyst John Bowlby. In addition, psychiatric social workers produced and published independent psychoanalytic research, and fiercely debated the limitations of analytic concepts such as transference. In presenting the relationship between British psychiatric social work and psychoanalysis, this article suggests a new way of telling the history of both. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leading mother-infant observation seminars is often imbued with anxiety and uncertainty. While there is a significant body of literature, notably by Bick (1964), Harris & Bick (2011), Magagna (1997), Saltzberger-Wittenberg (1997) and Miller et al. (1989) , which examine the endeavour and reflect on it, interested practitioners have seldom been formally trained; this was the author's experience. The article examines the parallels between the growth and development of an effective seminar leader and the early growth and development of the human infant's parents. There is a parallel in the lack of formal preparation and the considerable anxiety evoked. The article reflects on the seminar leader's role in containing the seminar group and individual observers as each learns from the experience of grappling with primitive, unconscious feelings, including the transference to the observer and her countertransference. Bion's (1963) concept of container-contained is apposite here as are the notions of so-called 'maternal' and 'paternal' functions and the position of the psychoanalytic third. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of a verbal or written contract has been employed in many different modalities of treatment as a means of establishing the expectations and parameters of treatment. Traditionally, the contract is seen as serving a somewhat utilitarian purpose: setting up the practical conditions of treatment and providing a containing frame for the patient. Contracts, however, can extend to establishing agreed-upon goals of treatment, anticipating obstacles that may arise in the treatment and clarifying how they will be dealt with should they arise, and clearly defining the roles of the patient and therapist in a way that aids the exploratory process once the treatment has begun. Importantly, the mutually agreed-upon contract serves as a useful roadmap to keep the treatment focused and on track. In this article we will emphasize how the treatment contract can facilitate in-depth understanding of the patient's internal world, particularly when challenges to the contract are enacted by the patient. We will begin by briefly summarizing the functions of the contract and then focus on the key role of the treatment contract in furthering the exploratory process of the patient's dynamics as expressed in the transference/countertransference matrix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From its beginning, psychoanalysis has taken an interest in literature –as a field to study and seek inspiration. How can literature and psychoanalysis enrich and illuminate each other? This text discusses methods and theory in psychoanalytic literary criticism. Contributions from object relations theory, the significance of the researcher's subjectivity, and issues of transference are emphasized. The difference between the literary and the clinical on the one hand and the challenge of reductionism on the other are imminent concerns, and as such are elaborated. Abundant access to theory and methods, awareness of the researcher's subjective involvement in the research process, and a determination to ensure articulation of meaning as it springs from the texts are emphasized as ways to counteract reductionism. Examples from psychoanalytic literary criticism and insights of authors on the underpinnings of their creative writing illustrate how literature and psychoanalysis meet in interest for the unconscious as it is embedded in language; how language can capture us in an emotional presence, even when words seem lost or absent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A psychotherapeutic relationship that can legitimately be referred to as psychoanalysis has expanded considerably since the tempering of the Freudian and ego-psychological hegemonic definitions originally imported to America by European analysts fleeing the Nazis and lasting until the middle 1980s. To some extent, pragmatic considerations have gradually supplanted older metapsychological, though the latter still carry all too much weight in the way analytic practice is conceptualized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Little is known about the influence on outcome of exploration of the patient-therapist relationship (that is, transference work) in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. We hypothesized that depressed adolescents would have better long-term effects from psychoanalytic psychotherapy with than without transference work. Methods: Depressed adolescent (16 to 18 years) were recruited in health authority funded out-patient clinics in Oslo and Vestfold County, Norway. They were randomized to 28 weeks of treatment with psychoanalytic psychotherapy with or without transference work. Change was assessed using linear-mixed models. The primary outcome measure was the Psychodynamic Functioning Scale (pre- post-, and 1-year post-treatment). Level of depression was measured at the same time points and during therapy (week 12, and 20). Results: 69 adolescents were treated with (N = 39) or without (N = 31) transference work. The mean number of sessions was 18.6 (SD = 8,6) in the transference work group and 18.0 (SD = 10.9) in the non-transference work group. Both groups showed large and significant improvement on Psychodynamic Functioning Scale during the whole study period. The difference between the two groups was not significant during the treatment period (95% CI −.79 to 1.2, p =.674, F =.18), or from post-treatment to one-year follow-up (95% CI −.13 to.96; p =.134; F = 2.3). For the secondary outcome measures the transference work group had significantly better outcomes from 12 weeks in treatment to one-year follow-up (Beck Depression Inventory, 95% CI − 1.7 to −.14, p =.022; Montgomery and Åsberg Depression Rating Scale, 95% CI − 1.6 to −.23, p =.009). Conclusion: The findings suggest that exploration of the adolescents' relations to the therapist amplify the effects of short-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy on their depressive symptoms for adolescents with a Major Depressive Disorder. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov. Id: NCT01531101. Registered 8 February 2012. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes schizoid phenomena and how the concept of relational needs is used in integrative psychotherapy. Drawing from client work, the author explores some of the unique qualities involved in offering a contact-oriented, relational form of therapy with an individual who uses the schizoid process of a social façade to protect the vital and vulnerable self. Relational needs are discussed in terms of transference, countertransference, and schizoid phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the concept of psychogenic autism that has been proposed by Frances Tustin. Her work centers on the dynamics of this serious illness with an emphasis on the infant’s experiences in the earliest connection with the mother. Tustin writes that the sudden and violent disruption of the skin-to-skin maternal/infant contact gives rise to pathological attempts to heal this separation; namely, through the infant’s shutting out contact with the external emotional world. An extensive clinical vignette is offered to illustrate how these dynamics are manifest clinically and the author’s efforts to establish a meaningful connection with a young patient. Transference and countertransference reactions are discussed in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on some of the author's experiences conducting psychoanalytic psychotherapy remotely during the coronavirus pandemic. The author takes E M. Forster's famous epigraph 'Only connect' as a starting point for reflecting on the nature of connecting in therapy when that work is mediated by technology. In particular, the author discusses his uncertainty about the impact of a digital format on the transference relationship. Three vignettes from the author's clinical work with adolescents are presented to expand upon this theme, before the author concludes that a transference relationship can survive, and sometimes thrive, across a digital distance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Covid-19 forced psychoanalysts, psychotherapists and many other healthcare practitioners to use online platforms, internet connectivity took on new meaning. While bothersome for both patient and therapist, technology glitches can offer an opportunity to see unconscious relationship dynamics come through in sessions, in a way they might not in the consulting room. While the therapist usually controls the frame through how they arrange their office, internet glitches can come from either the therapist's or the patient's side. These glitches can be thought of as either purely technological or as an unconscious enactment, more like a parapraxis. Both kinds of glitches can offer the opportunity to uncover meaning in the relationship. Exploration might help elucidate either the patient's reaction to the technological glitch or the unconscious meaning behind a parapraxis glitch. Like a 'Freudian slip' of the tongue in a typical session, a Freudian glitch can be fertile ground for further examination and connection with patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Covid-19 global pandemic has, for the moment, upended the traditional setting for analysing transference and countertransference dynamics, vital components to the work of psychoanalytic child psychotherapy. The physicality of the customary treatment setting provides a basis for the experiences of containment and understanding, along with the corresponding and familiar technical considerations within that setting. The absence of these fixed physical elements when transferring cases to virtual and other non-conventional settings points to a new set of technical challenges. How do we understand projective identification, transference and countertransference with children when the modified setting does not inherently afford a child the physical means to make contact with the consulting room as a container? What resources do we have as clinicians for persevering through the psychoanalytic process, in the face of the current global uncertainties? In this paper, I outline some of the theoretical underpinnings in psychoanalytic child psychotherapy that elucidate the challenges to the work I have encountered with my child patients during the pandemic, and explore the clinical implications stemming from those challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel can alter a change in readers over a lifetime. This paper examines the dynamics of transference animated by novels that affect us. In her reading of Thomas Ogden's The Parts Left Out, the author follows the novel's aesthetic and formal operation as it animates transference to one's own childhood in readers. The conceptualisation of transference in reading advanced in this paper leans on Melanie Klein's version of the workings of unconscious phantasy in the infant's first felt reading of the (m)other. The content of novels that profoundly affect us, the author argues, aesthetically and formally operate via self-other and/or author-reader transference in the event of reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In clinical hypnosis, the transference relationship, present in neurotic patients, becomes especially important in a psychotherapeutic process. It is pertinent that from the initial time of psychoanalysis, and throughout, the links are established either indirectly or directly. This was observed when working within a hypnotherapeutic orientation. The phenomenon of transference appears systematically, and the differences lie in the management of this situation. It is in the way of working, which distinguishes the hypnotherapist, who, by noticing in the "here and now", works with the orientation of therapy under clinical hypnosis, is never applying clinical methodology only to his patient. He observes it in its entirety, and from there, he can perceive a change in color, a repeated gesture, or a muscular contracture to interpret transference elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article aims to draw a continuity line of the ideas around the analytical bond between Sandor Ferenczi and Michael Balint. The concept of transference as introduced by Freud, has most likely changed when it pertains to understanding the non-neurotic cases, known as narcissistic-identities or borderline. In this sense, we study the analytical bond between authors who prioritized a clinical practice focused on these cases, such as Ferenczi and Balint. The clinical proposal of these authors, regarding the patient's analytical process, encompasses the analyst's countertransference and psyche, in its most unconscious part. As a result, these authors emphasized the challenges imposed by this clinical practice, bringing attention to the need of a deeper analyst's analysis towards these cases. Including the analyst's psyche in this setting would imply an intersubjective understanding of the encounter, resulting in a new way of looking at the analytical relationship and, therefore, the technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

À partir de la mise en place d'un cadre-dispositif de groupe thérapeutique à médiation « jeu vidéo » dans une institution de soin, les auteurs explorent les spécificités de ce dispositif dans une visée d'évaluation qualitative. Sont abordés successivement l'appareillage du joueur au dispositif technique ainsi que les formes de transfert et de symbolisation que la pratique du jeu vidéo en groupe mobilisent. Selon une perspective psychodynamique, les auteurs cherchent à repérer les ressorts thérapeutiques d'un dispositif à médiation jeu vidéo en décrivant la fonction qu'occupe le médium jeu vidéo ainsi que les processus psychiques que ce dernier induit dans l'établissement et le déploiement du transfert et des processus de symbolisation. En appui sur leur expérience clinique, plusieurs hypothèses sont proposées concernant la nature des liens qui se tissent entre le joueur, la machine, l'environnement virtuel-numérique et la groupalité. L'utilisation du médium jeu vidéo dans un cadre groupal conduit à dégager deux types de transfert spécifiques. D'une part, et de façon complémentaire à un transfert par « diffraction sensorielle », les auteurs décrivent « un transfert par focalisation sensorielle » opérant par synthèse et rassemblement, qui s'étaye sur les propriétés attractrices du médium en contribuant à l'établissement d'un sentiment d'immersion sensorielle. D'autre part, à partir de l'appareillage du joueur à la machine, ils définissent un « transfert de processus » opérant par délégation de certaines caractéristiques de son fonctionnement psychique à l'environnement virtuel-numérique et à ses fonctionnalités. Sont abordées ensuite, au sein de cette configuration transférentielle, quelques spécificités des processus de symbolisation, en particulier de ses formes primaires, en lien avec les propriétés du médium. L'ensemble de ces hypothèses, illustrées par quelques exemples cliniques, permettent d'identifier les fonctions qu'occupent le médium jeu vidéo dans l'établissement des processus transférentiels et des processus de symbolisation. Ils permettent également d'entrevoir l'agencement de la groupalité induit par l'utilisation « à tour de rôle » du médium jeu. Ceci conduit à penser l'objet-écran comme un fond commun groupal partagé sur lequel le joueur « aux commandes » s'étaye pour s'approprier ses propres expériences subjectives. Ces différentes propositions concourent à mieux prendre en compte les spécificités de la pratique thérapeutique du jeu vidéo en groupe, et permettent d'approcher, dans une perspective d'évaluation qualitative, les processus qui sous-tendent les potentialités thérapeutiques de ce dispositif. Starting from the implementation of a "video game" mediated therapeutic group in a health care institution, the authors explore the specificities of this setting in a qualitative evaluation perspective. The player's adjustment to the technical device is approached as well as certain forms of transfer and symbolization mobilized by the practice of a video game in group. From a psychodynamic perspective, the authors seek to identify the therapeutic springs of a video game-mediated setting by describing the function of the video game medium, as well as the psychic processes it induces in the establishment of transfer and the deployment of symbolization processes. Based on their clinical experience, several hypotheses are proposed concerning the nature of the links that are set up between the player, the machine, the digital virtual environment and groupality. The use of the video game medium in a group setting leads to two specific types of transfer. On one hand, in a complementary way to a "transfer by sensory diffraction", the authors describe "a transfer by sensory polarization" operating by synthesis and gathering, which is based on the medium's attracting properties by contributing to the establishment of a feeling of sensory immersion. On the other hand, from the player's adjustment to the machine, they define a "process transfer" operating by delegating certain characteristics of its psychic functioning to the virtual-digital environment and its functionalities. Then, within this transferential configuration, some specificities of the processes of symbolization, in particular of its primary forms, in relation to the properties of the medium, are discussed. All these hypotheses, illustrated by a few clinical examples, make it possible to identify the functions of the video game medium in the establishment of transferential and symbolization processes. They also permit us to glimpse the arrangement of the groupality induced by the use "in turn" of the game medium. This leads us to think of the screen-object as a common fund shared by the group, on which the player "at the controls" relies to appropriate his own subjective experiences. These different proposals contribute better to take into account the specificities of the therapeutic practice of video games in groups, and permit us to approach, in a perspective of qualitative evaluation, the processes underlying the therapeutic potentialities of this system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, it is widely accepted that experience can modify multiple aspects of the functioning and structure of the brain; however, there is still a long way to go to understand the mechanisms behind these modifications. In order to understand the relationship between experience and brain plasticity, models and paradigms have been adapted from cognitive neurosciences; one of them has been music training. In the last decades, this paradigm has strengthened because it allows us to understand the structural and functional modifications produced by training. It has been demonstrated that musicians compared to non-musicians present larger sizes of specific brain regions, in particular, the prefrontal cortex, which is associated with a better performance in executive functions tasks. In addition, long-term neuro-physiological changes have been identified in people who play an instrument. A relationship between playing an instrument and better performance in executive functions has been identified. However, the evidence of this effect is contradictory. Executive functions are a series of general control processes that help regulate thinking and behavior. Some research indicates that learning an instrument is associated with better performance in working memory, but not regarding tasks related to inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility. However, other studies have revealed significant differences between musicians and non-musicians, both in working memory and tasks of cognitive flexibility as well as in inhibitory control. It is possible that the contradictory results are due to the methodological diversity through which this topic has been addressed, since some studies have carried out experimental and quasi-experimental designs, and others have developed correlational approaches. In addition, different theoretical models have been used to evaluate executive functions. For this study, we work with the theoretical model of Miyake et al. (2000), which is a solid theoretical-empirical proposal about three clearly differentiable executive functions: inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and working memory. A meta-analysis was performed with the purpose of identifying the effect of playing an instrument on executive functions as well as identifying the moderator variables. By doing this, we wanted to clarify the problem in question and the controversial results; therefore, empirical studies comparing musicians against non-musicians were included. The comparison group should not have been exposed to musical training, the participants should not present motor or cognitive disabilities, and finally, studies should report means and standard deviations for the scores on executive functions tasks. We included papers published between January 2000 and July 2017. The moderator variables studied were: age in months at the time of evaluation, age at which training began, and total years of training. The coding strategy allowed us to identify a total of 42 294 articles. The titles and abstracts were analyzed and those that did not meet the inclusion criteria were eliminated. This procedure allowed the detection of 24 articles for future analysis, and 12 out of them were finally selected. These 12 articles contributed to 60 effect sizes and 513 participants. The results showed that musicians have a better performance in executive functions tasks when they are compared to non-musicians, d = .712, n = 60, IC95% = (.57; .85), p < .0001. Additionally, the analysis of moderating variables revealed that the practice of an instrument equally benefits all executive functions, and the most important benefit occurs in older adults and children. Results support the hypothesis that the high level of difficulty involved with learning to play an instrument can influence a better performance in executive functions tasks. Our study points out the need of designing research that allows the scientific community to investigate the effect of prolonged musical training over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Authors aiming to conceptualize a 'cognitive countertransference' continue to search for the most effective way to integrate psychoanalytic theory, and a coherent definition for such a concept. This paper first argues that authentic attempts at integration of the concept of transference into cognitive‐behaviourism require a return to seminal work on Übertragung (transference) and Gegenübertragung (countertransference). References to these terms throughout the work of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan are discussed in the context of the overall progression in the work of both theorists. With regard to two fundamental psychoanalytic concepts that underlie a Freudo‐Lacanian understanding of transference – the unconscious and repetition – this paper subsequently explores how a Lacanian logic may inform the emerging 'cognitive countertransference' literature. This paper contextualizes such thinking within the ongoing psychoanalytic debate regarding the utility of the analyst's participation in the transference relation. Ultimately, this paper argues that a cognitive countertransference may be redundant in favour of an understanding of shared cotransference, or transference relation, which begets simple theoretical conclusions, and technical recommendations. Implications for cognitive‐behavioural theory and practice are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]