An anatomy of countertransference: staff reactions to difficult psychiatric hospital patients

Countertransference among hospital staff was investigated as part of ongoing research on difficult-to-treat psychiatric hospital patients. Staff's ratings of their emotional reactions to 127 patients on long-term units were analyzed by factor analysis, and the resulting factors were correlated by discipline with patient problem behaviors. Among the conclusions were that different forms of psychopathology elicit characteristic patterns of emotional reaction from staff; that some dimensions of psychopathology, particularly suicidal-depressed behavior and violence-agitation, elicit different emotional reactions among different disciplines, thus laying the groundwork for division among staff; and that the more difficult the process of hospital treatment, the more likely staff will experience a variety of emotions.