Session Reference
Woodman: Transference and Countertransference in Analysis Dealing with Eating Disorders, pages 53-66
Meador: Transference/Countertransference, and Therapeutic Interaction, pages 163-174
Seminar Introduction
Text: Schwartz-Salant, N., & Stein, M. (2015). Transference Countertransference. Ashville: Chiron
Early Jung regarded transference as a potential complication in analytic work. While Freud made the transference central to psychoanalysis, in his post-Freudian period Jung became wary of emphasizing transference as centrally important. His position evolved, however, as he saw the transference in increasingly symbolic terms. This culminated in his 1946 essay, The Psychology of the Transference.
Transference Countertransference reflects a shift from symbolic interpretation of patient symptoms toward the therapeutic relationship itself as a symbol of transformation. On this view, analyst and patient do not simply exchange interpretations; they participate together in a living relational process through which new awareness becomes possible.
A central contribution of the book is its argument that the analyst is not a neutral observer standing outside the process, but an involved participant whose emotional responses, bodily reactions, fantasies, and dreams can provide important clinical information. The collection explores how unconscious dynamics arise within a shared relational field between analyst and analysand, and how dipolar archetypal patterns – healer-patient, authority-rebel, mother-child – can become enacted. There is also an emphasis on the importance of tolerating uncertainty and emotional intensity rather than rushing into interpretation.
This volume helped move Jungian analysis toward a more relational and intersubjective framework, bringing it into conversation with object relations, self-psychology, and field theory. The essays pay particular attention to difficult clinical situations, including borderline states, trauma, eating disorders, and sexual enactments. Originally published in 1970, the book remains significant because it reframes analysis as a mutually transformative encounter in which relationship itself becomes the medium of healing and change.
Learning Objectives
Participants will be able to:
Describe Jung’s evolving view of transference and countertransference, including the shift from symptom interpretation toward the therapeutic relationship as a symbolic field of transformation.
Identify archetypal and relational patterns that may emerge within the analytic encounter, including enactments involving power, dependency, authority, sexuality, and care.
Evaluate the clinical significance of the analyst’s emotional, bodily, imaginal, and dream responses as potential sources of information within the countertransference process.
Apply concepts from the assigned readings to clinical situations, including trauma, borderline states, eating disorders, sexual enactments, and other transference/countertransference dynamics.