Freud, for most of his life, considered countertransference as an obnoxious interference of the analyst’s pure position as observer of the analysand. On the contrary, Jung appreciated that countertransference is an essential tool through which analysts can trace the source of their own thoughts, feelings and even actions (verbal and otherwise) in relation to their analysands, and it is for these reasons that he recommended that ‘the sine qua non is the analysis of the analyst, what is called the training analysis’ (Jung: Memories, Dreams, Reflections (MDR), p. 154).
