The Handbook of Jungian Psychology: Theory, Practice and Applications

by Renos K. Papadopoulos

Jung shows greater consistency when it comes to countertransference and has been recognised as one of the pioneers of a general movement in psychotherapy to regard the emotional, fantasy and bodily states of the therapist as being of importance for a deeper understanding of the client’s situation. Up until the 1950s, psychoanalysis, following Freud, tended to regard countertransference as invariably neurotic, an activation of the analyst’s infantile conflicts and an obstacle to his functioning (Freud 1910, 1913). To the contrary, Jung wrote in 1929 that ‘You can exert no influence unless you are subject to influence … The patient influences [the analyst] unconsciously … One of the best known symptoms of this kind is the countertransference evoked by the transference’ (CW 16: par. 163). In sum, Jung regarded countertransference as ‘a highly important organ of information’ for an analyst (par. 163). Jung accepted that some countertransferences were not so benign, referring to ‘psychic infection’ and the dangers of identifying with the patient (CW 16: pars. 358, 365).