Transference and Countertransference : A Unifying Focus of Psychoanalysis

Since Freud's initial papers on transference and countertransference, these vast and inexhaustible subjects have occupied psychoanalysts. Transference and countertransference, the essence of the patient/analyst relationship, are concepts so central to pschoanalysis that, to our minds, they transcend theoretical orientation and, thus, can be seen as a unifying focus of psychoanalysis. However differently theoretical traditions conceptualize the transference, or disagree as to when and how to interpret it in our everyday analytic work, we all embrace the phenomenon as vital to psychic change.