Countertransference

As a counter-transference is called in psychoanalysis a form of transmission in which a therapist to the patient (or to the company resulting from transfer phenomena actions and statements ) responded, and in turn his own feelings, prejudices, expectations and desires towards this. The therapist leaves this for different motives - usually temporary - its neutral position. Therefore, the counter-transference was in the early days of psychoanalysis as a disturbing influence that the therapist had to make conscious and eliminate. The modern psychoanalysis sees the feelings of the therapist to the patient as a " sounding board ", by which he gains information about the patient.

Term

The observation of this phenomenon goes back to Sigmund Freud who stated that a transfer not only is itself an echo of past relationships, but in turn causes an echo in the therapist. Freud called to fight it in the therapeutic session and exclude ( " recognize and cope "). First, he had seen a treatment obstacle in the transfer of the patient to the therapist, whose usefulness for therapeutic work, he realized later. In contrast, it remained Paula Heimann reserved to the centrality of countertransference for psychotherapeutic work comprehensible and accessible.

It is, as with the transfer to an ordinary phenomenon that is widespread in the social context and - so to speak "in the small " - is present in almost every human contact. As transfers are also counter-transference practically ubiquitous, because people who have to do with each other, in comparison to constantly unconsciously trigger feelings that have to do with their own history. In psychotherapy, countertransference can be an obstacle, but at the same time also be a very valuable and sensitive diagnostic tool. The prerequisite for this is a sufficient self-experience of the therapist, in which he got to know his own conflicts, Kränkbarkeiten etc. ( cf. training analysis ). Only against this background, the therapist can identify and distinguish between what he brings from his own life story and what part of the problem of the patient, whose part it will be temporary and must be. In the longer term unrecognized countertransference can lead to entanglements, and a threat to the therapy, which would not necessarily iatrogenic in the sense of proceeding from the therapists fault be true, however their cause would have been in the weakness of the therapist, whose defense mechanism would form an alliance with the patient.

Closer relations or friendships between therapist and patient to make therapeutic work impossible, since this requires a sufficient emotional distance. Such relationships are therefore incompatible with the ethics of psychotherapy ( cf. rule of abstinence ).

Also in the educational work is a balance between closeness and distance indispensable, especially since here an even greater strength - weakness - dynamics underlies than in the psychotherapeutic context. People who are in a weak position are dependent on the objective and unprejudiced treatment by a stronger.

Example of countertransference

Meaning of " countertransference "

The term " countertransference " is used in different and contradictory in the literature:

• All the feelings and attitudes of the therapist towards the patient
• The unconscious neurotic reaction of the therapist to the transmissions of the patient
• The healthy complementary reaction of the therapist to the patient's transference (example: father - son, Parent - Child ego )
• Their own infantile / neurotic transmission of the therapist to the patient

This always leads to misunderstanding and contradictions in the discussions.

In the countertransference is also always contain a mixture of a) feelings from the unconscious self of the patient, ie a recognition of his being, and b ) feelings of the transfer roller, the attributes of the patient to the therapist. Often only one side is observed.

Positive and negative countertransference

Principle can be - as in the transmission - distinguish positive and negative countertransference, depending on whether more pleasant or more unpleasant feelings in the foreground.

The forms of countertransference are very diverse. They range from affection, social or affectionate wishes to negative feelings, dislike or disparaging thoughts and utterances that may have placed in the patient's therapist.

Concordant and complementary countertransference

Countertransference can both ( complementary ) a counterpart to his transfer as well ( concordant ) include similar feelings. For this, two examples from the field of education:

• Concordant countertransference ( similar, coincident with the experience of the other person emotional response ): An educator feels so treated from a child, as otherwise the child is treated (or how it feels to be treated ).
• Complementary countertransference ( opposite emotional reaction, that is, identification with a reference person of the opponent ): A teacher feels in the parental role, for example as the " überbehütende " mother or the " punitive " father.

Transference and countertransference in group psychotherapy

In group psychotherapy is for the group therapist, the complexity and plurality of transfers and counter- transfers between the participants and the group therapist and vice versa, a great professional and personal challenge. Countertransference in the group is therefore always multiple, composed of the counter-transference to different participants. Even the participants themselves develop counter-transference to the transmissions of other participants. The therapist responds with its counter-transference on the behavior of the group as a whole, Moeller speaks of a " group countertransference ".

Dealing with problems of countertransference

Dealing with the countertransference is one of the biggest challenges and opportunities for psychotherapists, doctors, teachers, etc. in their work dar. not rare in psychotherapeutic sessions for language coming ideas and secret desires of the patient after daily judgment actually not appropriate and of idealizations or perversions passed. However, this is an expression of psychological problems, because of which the patient seeks help and resolve is the task of the therapy. The therapist is prepared that this may occur and not responding ( such as the social environment of the patient) personally affected, but with a friendly neutrality.

In case of difficulties in the transference-countertransference transmission structure for resolution of the situation support from a third party is often necessary, for example, reflective conversations, Intervision or supervision with colleagues and, if appropriate psychotherapeutic help. Upon successful processing of countertransference, the therapist receives not only a deeper insight into the difficulties of the patients, but also in central themes of his own person. ( See also: Balint group )

A special research field of ( counter-) transmission is currently evolving in the field of psychosomatic practice. Here countertransference phenomena can be stressful for therapists, for example, if in patients with chronic pain symptoms, pain for the therapist in your own body will be felt in the known or symptom change over clients with chronic hypertension.

Thure von Uexhüll still writes of the difficulty of the therapist to have constantly dealing with the symptom, without it being possible to penetrate to the patient. In Gerd Rudolf is with this topic coherently called "problem -studded patient ," with Karl King is dealing with the psychosomatic ill patients even to a general interaction problem, in which the personality of the therapist can act aggravating or relieving. Bernhard Suggest refers to the diagnostic significance of countertransference feelings in the first contact with psychosomatic ill patients and calls for an expansion of research and training for working in the psychosomatic field of health care colleagues. Also in the study, " Mental health in the workplace in Germany " is on the particular stress and the resulting therapeutic to improving workplace situation noted following moving. (Additional literature :)

Demarcation

While responding emotionally to the person of the therapist in the transmission of the patient, the situation is reversed in the countertransference.

Projective ID is a special transfer mechanism, wherein the patient includes the therapist in its individual conflict constellation. The therapist is intended to represent the patient resolve unresolved conflicts, which in turn triggers often violent countertransference feelings in the person of the therapist. Countertransference and projective identification therefore often occur in a therapeutic relationship together on.

Countertransference and the methodology of the social sciences

Since the unconscious is not only active during sleep and in the analytic situation, transference and countertransference are universal phenomena that can always occur when people meet each other, eg at school between teachers and students. The ethnologist and psychoanalyst Georges Devereux has drawn methodological consequences for the social sciences.

In anxiety to method in the behavioral sciences Devereux proposes to reconsider the question of the relationship between the observer and the observed new, with Devereux is based on the model of psychoanalysis. According to Devereux the classic methodological principle which prescribes the researcher is to observe from a strictly objective point of view, unworkable, and any attempt to achieve this, even counterproductive. Instead, the observer should put yourself and be aware that what he has observed, always influenced by its own observers activity in the middle of the process into it.

More specifically, are the only realities, on the disponer the observer, what he really perceives his own reactions to the reactions that he triggers. For Devereux, the observer must think like the psychoanalyst about his relationship with his analysand about his relationship with the observed. In every study in which it comes to subjectivity of people (or animals ), must be moved.