The eroticized transference: a tool for the reconstruction of childhood sexual trauma

In this paper the eroticized transference is seen as a tool to reconstruct the childhood trauma through the patient's material and the corresponding countertransference in the therapist. The theses is presented that the eroticized transference is an indicator of the existence in the life of the patient of childhood sexual trauma, often unbeknownst to him or her and that it can be of great value in the reconstruction of the experience. The reason it has not been used may lie in our tendency to deny the reality of incest and in the propensity of the analyst for counterresistance in response to these patients. Between avoidance and acting out lies the opportunity to use the countertransference response of the analyst as a catalyst and to reconstruct the traumatic events through the patient's material and the corresponding response in the analyst. Two cases, a male and a female, exemplify the use of transference and countertransference for recollection and reconstruction of the traumatic childhood experience.