In this sense, the term includes [[unconscious mind|unconscious]] reactions to a patient that are determined by the psychoanalyst's own life history and unconscious content; it was later expanded to include unconscious hostile and/or erotic feelings toward a patient that interfere with objectivity and limit the therapist's effectivness. For example, a therapist might have a strong desire for a client to get all 'A's' in university because the client reminds her of her children at that stage in life, and the anxieties that the therapist experienced during that time.  Even in its most benign form, such an attitude could lead at best to 'a "countertransference cure"...achieved through compliance and a "false self" suppression of the patient's more difficult feelings'<ref>Patrick Casement, ''On Learning from the Patient'' (London 1990), p. 174</ref>.

In this sense, the term includes [[unconscious mind|unconscious]] reactions to a patient that are determined by the psychoanalyst's own life history and unconscious content; it was later expanded to include unconscious hostile and/or erotic feelings toward a patient that interfere with objectivity and limit the therapist's effectivness. For example, a therapist might have a strong desire for a client to get all 'A's' in university because the client reminds her of her children at that stage in life, and the anxieties that the therapist experienced during that time.  Even in its most benign form, such an attitude could lead at best to 'a "countertransference cure"...achieved through compliance and a "false self" suppression of the patient's more difficult feelings'<ref>Patrick Casement, ''On Learning from the Patient'' (London 1990), p. 174</ref>.

Another example would be a therapist who didn't receive enough attention from her father perceiving her client as being too distant and resenting him for it. In essence, this describes  the [[transference]] of the treater to the patient, which is referred to as the “narrow perspective.”<ref>Gabbard, Glen O. (1999). Countertransference Issues in Psychiatric Treatment. American Psychiatric Press. p. 1</ref>

Another example would be a therapist who didn't receive enough attention from her father perceiving her client as being too distant and resenting him for it. In essence, this describes  the [[transference]] of the treater to the patient, which is referred to as the “narrow perspective.” <ref name="Gabbard">Gabbard, Glen O. (1999). Countertransference Issues in Psychiatric Treatment. American Psychiatric Press. p. 1</ref>

==The Middle Years==

==The Middle Years==

As the twentieth century progressed, however, other, more positive views of countertransference began to emerge, approaching a definition of countertransference as the entire body of feelings that the therapist has toward the patient.  Jung explored the importance of the therapist's reaction to the patient through the image of the wounded physician: 'it is his own hurt that gives the measure of his power to heal'<ref>Jung quoted in Anthony Stevens, ''Jung'' (Oxford 1994) p. 110</ref>.  Heinrich Racker emphasised the threat that 'the repression of countertransference...is prolonged in the mythology of the analytic situation'<ref>Heinrich Racker, ''Transference and Countertransference'' (London 1982) p. 131</ref>.  Paula Heimann highlighted how the 'analyst's countertransference is not only part and parcel of the analytic relationship, but it is the patient's ''creation'', it is part of the patient's personality'<ref>Casement, ''Further learning'' p. 12</ref>.  As a result, 'counter-transference was thus reversed from being an interference to becoming a potential source of vital confirmation'<ref>Robert Hinshelwood and Susan Robinson, ''Introducing Melanie Klein'' (Cambridge 2006) p. 151</ref>.  The change of fortune 'was highly controversial.  Melanie Klein disapproved on the grounds that poorly analyzed psycho-analysts could excuse their own emotional difficulties' thereby; but among her younger followers 'the trend within the Kleinian group was to take seriously the new view of counter-transference'<ref>Hishelwood/Robinson</ref> - [[Hanna Segal]] warning in typically pragmatic fashion however that 'Countertransference can be the best of servants but is the most awful of masters'<ref>David Bell, ''Reason and Passion'' (London 1997) p. 30</ref>.

As the twentieth century progressed, however, other, more positive views of countertransference began to emerge, approaching a definition of countertransference as the entire body of feelings that the therapist has toward the patient.  Jung explored the importance of the therapist's reaction to the patient through the image of the wounded physician: 'it is his own hurt that gives the measure of his power to heal'<ref>Jung quoted in Anthony Stevens, ''Jung'' (Oxford 1994) p. 110</ref>.  Heinrich Racker emphasised the threat that 'the repression of countertransference...is prolonged in the mythology of the analytic situation'<ref>Heinrich Racker, ''Transference and Countertransference'' (London 1982) p. 131</ref>.  Paula Heimann highlighted how the 'analyst's countertransference is not only part and parcel of the analytic relationship, but it is the patient's ''creation'', it is part of the patient's personality'<ref>Casement, ''Further learning'' p. 12</ref>.  As a result, 'counter-transference was thus reversed from being an interference to becoming a potential source of vital confirmation'<ref>Robert Hinshelwood and Susan Robinson, ''Introducing Melanie Klein'' (Cambridge 2006) p. 151</ref>.  The change of fortune 'was highly controversial.  Melanie Klein disapproved on the grounds that poorly analyzed psycho-analysts could excuse their own emotional difficulties' thereby; but among her younger followers 'the trend within the Kleinian group was to take seriously the new view of counter-transference'<ref>Hishelwood/Robinson</ref> - Hanna Segal warning in typically pragmatic fashion however that 'Countertransference can be the best of servants but is the most awful of masters'<ref>David Bell, ''Reason and Passion'' (London 1997) p. 30</ref>.

==The Late Twentieth Century Paradigm==

==The Late Twentieth Century Paradigm==

By the last third of the century, a growing consensus appeared on the importance of 'a distinction between "personal countertransference" (what has to do with the therapist) and "diagnostic response" - that indicates something about the patient...diagnostic countertransference'<ref>Casement, ''Further learning'' p. 8 and p. 165</ref>.  A new belief had come into being that 'countertransference can be of such enormous clinical usefulness....You have to distinguish between what your reactions to the patient are telling you about his psychology and what they are merely expressing about your own'<ref>"Aaron Green", quoted in Janet Malcolm, ''Psychoanalysis: the impossible profession''(London 1988), p. 115</ref>.  Awareness of the distinction between  ' ''neurotic countertransference'' - which...Fordham calls ''illusory countertransfernce'' - the personal countertransference or narrow perspective - '[and] ''countertransference proper'' '<ref>Mario Jacoby, ''The Analytic Encounter'' (Canada 1984) p. 38</ref> had come (despite a wide range of terminological variation) to transcend individual schools. The main exception is that for 'most psychoanalysts who follow Lacan's teaching...counter-transference is not simply one form of resistance, it is ''the'' ultimate resistance of the analyst'<ref>Jean-Michel Quinodoz, ''Reading Freud'' (London 2005) p. 72</ref>.

By the last third of the century, a growing consensus appeared on the importance of 'a distinction between "personal countertransference" (what has to do with the therapist) and "diagnostic response" - that indicates something about the patient...diagnostic countertransference'<ref>Casement, ''Further learning'' p. 8 and p. 165</ref>.  A new belief had come into being that 'countertransference can be of such enormous clinical usefulness....You have to distinguish between what your reactions to the patient are telling you about his psychology and what they are merely expressing about your own'<ref>"Aaron Green", quoted in Janet Malcolm, ''Psychoanalysis: the impossible profession''(London 1988), p. 115</ref>.  Awareness of the distinction between  ' ''neurotic countertransference'' - which...Fordham calls ''illusory countertransfernce'' - the personal countertransference or narrow perspective - '[and] ''countertransference proper'' '<ref>Mario Jacoby, ''The Analytic Encounter'' (Canada 1984) p. 38</ref> had come (despite a wide range of terminological variation) to transcend individual schools. The main exception is that for 'most psychoanalysts who follow Lacan's teaching...counter-transference is not simply one form of resistance, it is ''the'' ultimate resistance of the analyst'<ref>Jean-Michel Quinodoz, ''Reading Freud'' (London 2005) p. 72</ref>.