The countertransference dream
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 14, 2026

High-Definition Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation During Sleep
Published on: December 5, 2025
1susann.wolff@skynet.be
Abstract:
Can the analyst's night-dream about his patient be considered as a manifestation of countertransference--and, if so, under what conditions? In what way can such a dream represent more than just the disguised fulfillment of a repressed wish of the analyst? Is there not a risk of the analyst unconsciously taking up and 'using' the content of a session or other elements coming from the analytic situation for his own psychic reasons? The author, closely following Freud's dream theory, shows the mechanisms which can allow us to use the dream content in the analytical situation: preserved from the secondary processes of conscious thinking, other fantasies and affects than in the waking state can emerge in dream thought, following an 'unconscious perception'. After examining the countertransference elements of Freud's dream, 'Irma's injection', which leads off The interpretation of dreams, the author presents a dream of her own about a patient and its value for understanding affects and representations which had hitherto remained unrepresented.
More Related Videos
05:48The Adventures of Fundi Intervention Based on the Cognitive and Emotional Processing in Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder Patients
Published on: June 12, 2020
07:14Virtual Agent for Real-Time Motivational Interviewing by Integrating Adaptive Nonverbal Behavior and Language Models
Published on: December 23, 2025
Related Concept Videos
Psychodynamic Therapy
Counterfactual Thinking
Dreaming
Freudian Psychology
Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory
Freud's concept of psychic determinism asserts that...
Lucid Dreaming
Studies have shown...