IN FAVOUR OF A MODERATE USE OF COUNTERTRANSFERECE: THE HISTORY AND THE PRESENT SITUATION.

Countertransference is one of the most important tools of the analytic work. In this paper, I will try to show how countertransference has been considered in different ways according to the importance paid to the analyst's subjectivity. One important problem concerns the therapeutic value of the elaboration of countertransference. My hypothesis is that this necessary process is not enough to promote the therapeutic progress. I think that the analysis of countertransference is essential in order to keep the analytic process open but it is not a true therapeutic tool per se. The analyst should constantly and eagerly integrate the patient's world with every element (memories, reconstructions, considerations on life experiences, including his own) that can be useful in widening the patient's emotional life. The analytic relationship depends on the analyst's capacity to create and maintain in his mind a place for the patient (for his history, his difficulties and his tacit request for mental and emotive development) and on the patient's disposition to consider the analyst as a transformative object that is indispensable for his growth. The analytic process continues and progresses as long as this relationship remains alive. In this perspective, the analysis of countertransference plays a moderate and self-controlled role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]