Erotic complications

The author argues that erotic transference-countertransference dynamics present particular complexities when they develop between gender constellations other than male analyst and female patient. She addresses the dynamics of a complicated erotic transference in concert with an aversive countertransference response as it evolved between a female analyst and female patient. The intense erotic transference that developed defied classification as either maternallerotic or oedipallerotic, and instead included both features in a rapidly shifting process that was difficult to address analytically. The analyst's confused, often aversive, response to her patient's erotic wishes ultimately revealed a subtle re-enactment involving split-off and erotised experiences of emotional penetration and scrutiny. When these issues were addressed, the erotic transference dissolved, and the analyst's experience of her patient shifted rather dramatically. It is suggested that complex erotic transference sometimes contains within it evidence of previously repressed object experiences that were not primarily sexual in nature.