MEANING AND MANAGEMENT OF ATTRACTION - NEGLECTED AREAS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY TRAINING AND PRACTICE

Sexual attraction and longings in therapeutic relationships require a sophisticated psychodynamic treatment perspective to arrive at a usefu l formulation and constructive interventions. Unrecognized, such feeli ngs may lead to therapeutic failures or harmful enactments by patients or therapists. When understood, these feelings provide opportunities which can creatively enrich and advance psychotherapy. Commonly occuri ng transference-countertransference dilemmas are examined and discusse d with particular attention to implications for clinical practice and training.