Transference and Counter-Transference

by Heinrich Racker

This book, whose central theme is counter-transference, had considerable impact in Latin America, and also aroused interest and confirmation in other psychoanalytic centers of North America and Europe. Racker argued that transference and counter-transference are the two components of a unity that reciprocally give life to one another and create the interpersonal relationship in the analytic setting. The counter-transference encompasses the analyst's total response to the transferences of the patient and to his or her own transferential reactions to the person of the analysand. It is a decisive factor for the understanding and interpretation of the patient's psychological processes.

203 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1968

Reviews

[Hon Lady Selene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh, Lacan said it better some 7 years before this was published.

I did like this anecdote:

"One day a Chinese wise man lost his pearls.
He therefore sent his eyes to search for
his pearls, but his eyes did not find them. Next he sent his ears
to search for the pearls, but his ears did not find them either.
Then he sent his hands to search for the pearls, but neither
did his hands find them. And so he sent all of his senses to
search for his pearls but none found them. Finally he sent his
not-search to look for his pearls. And his not-search found them."

His non-search. His Aufsicht, to quote the original. But here it does not imply an error, Racker speaks of an oversight of a different nature - an absentminded omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent "all-seeing eye" or view from the top. What Nietzsche called "becoming what one is". What Socrates what trying to teach through his analytic technique, knowing thyself. The wise man sent all of his senses and it still wasn't enough. He had to send the self to look for his pearls. And the self found them.

[Oliver Jarvis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Timeless and still relevant today. A deep dive into the vicissitudes of transference. I really liked the focus Racker puts on the analyst's countertransference. Analysts are only human too

[Iuri · Rating 5 out of 5]

An essencial reading for the field of psychoanalysis, especially chapter 6 “The meanings and use of countertransference”