On theory and practice of transference and countertransference in psychoanalytic pluralism

Present-day psychoanalysis is characterized by pluralism, subjectivism and eclecticism. This is certainly an indication of creativity but also poses t he question of the truth-value of mutually exclusive theories about the sam e phenomenon and the way theories influence psychoanalytic thought and acti on. Merely pointing out that in all cases the methodology is the same is in sufficient to disarm criticism. The differences extend right down to therap eutic technique. Without previous clarification of the issues involved ther e can be no uncontested postulation of a "common ground" shared by all psyc hoanalytic schools of thought. Inspired by Merton M. Gill's sociological un derstanding of psychoanalytic method as a unique form of intersubjective pr axis and drawing on the idea of the "bifocality of countertransference" and the attendant reciprocal influence operative between analyst and patient, the author undertakes a review of the most important theories regarding the concepts of transference and countertransference. In so doing, he distance s himself equally from the totalist view of transference (Kleinians) and th e out-and-out subjectivism of an absolutized countertransference concept.