Understanding Countertransference: From Projective Identification to Empathy

Understanding Countertransference: From Projective Identification to Empathy by Michael J. Tansey. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780881630640.

Seeking to mediate between the "classical" view of countertransference as a neurotic impediment to the treatment process and the more recent "totalist" perspective, which assumes that the therapists emotional response necessarily reveals something about the patient, Tansey and Burke stake out a thoughtful middle ground. They submit that the therapists utilization of adequately processed countertransference reactions is in fact integral to treatment success, while arguing against the totalist assumption that the therapists emotional to the patient must be revelatory in a direct and immediate way.