The Knitting Knows: On Learning How to Work With the Countertransference.

Learning how to identify and work with the countertransference is a cornerstone of any psychoanalytic training, yet it can't be taught solely through books or in the classroom. Experience of the countertransference and having it pointed out through supervision or a peer group is an essential component of this learning process. Nonetheless, countertransference can be missed as it's often an unconscious form of communication. This article explores, through the example of an infant observation, how an intense countertransference penetrated unchecked and unnoticed but was enacted through the creative act of knitting. The emergence of this countertransference is examined and is then considered through the lens of a 'creative block'. This idea gives a different way to think about unconscious processes and enriches the understanding of what is being communicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]