Transference and countertransference issues in treatments involving older patients and younger therapists

In this paper, I have described certain transference fantasies found in treatments involving older patients and younger therapists. These include the defense against the loss of objects, the resurrection in fantasy of prior lost objects, the bolstering of one's sense of oneself as phallic and masculine or as more acceptably feminine, and the fantasy of oneself as being younger and not likely to be nearing death. For individuals with a significant degree of envy of those younger than they are, the wish to steal the therapist's youth or to emasculate his therapeutic efficacy may lead to a need to defeat the therapy. The use of the analysis of dreams and fantasies as a means of monitoring countertransference feelings is of particular importance for the younger therapist working with the older patient, who may mobilize unresolved feelings toward both parental figures and the former analyst of the therapist.