The role of testicular conflicts in a countertransference reaction

A case is presented in which a patient's presenting symptoms of impotence and a pervasive inhibition of productivity are dynamically related to a cryptorchild condition which was discovered and treated during childhood. The importance of the cryptorchid condition and its relationship to the patient's later psychopathology are examined. However, it is the therapist's reaction to the clinical material that is the paricular focus of his paper. The therapist obtained the history of cryptorchism in the fifth month of treatment, and then subsequently repressed this data. In addition, a persistent countertransference reaction developed that threatened to disrupt the treatment relationship. In reviewing the course of the therapy, it was possible to determine that the therapist's repression of the patient's cryptorchism and his subsequent countertransference response were directly related to his own repressed testicular conflicts. The implications regarding the existence of similar conflicts in other therapists are discussed.