Transference-countertransference issues with adolescents: personal reflections

The concept of transference-countertransference is an important theoretical construct and critical for therapists to understand and utilize when working psychotherapeutically with adolescents. Freud introduced the concept, hypothesizing that the patient "transferred onto the analyst feelings and thoughts resulting from a reactivation of previous psychological experiences, usually a recapitulation of early unconscious libidinal impulses." Jung included sociocultural aspects by stating that "by virtues of the collective content and symbols, transference transcends the individual's personality and extends into the social sphere." Fromm-Reichmann viewed transference as "transferring onto the therapist as a present-day partner, early experiences of interpersonal relatedness," and Sullivan believed that in any therapeutic interaction "two ... persons come to deal with the issues of one." It is my position that transference-countertransference is a phenomenon that exists in every encounter with a child and adolescent patient and includes the full spectrum of emotions and reactions--eager anticipation, dreaded waiting, envy, joy, anger, love, and hate. Working with and through this phenomenon creates a corrective emotional experience for the patient and the opportunity for him or her to mature in a more normative healthy fashion.