Coasting in the Countertransference: Conflicts of Self Interest between Analyst and Patient

238 Pages·2008·3.02 MB·English

by  Irwin Hirsch

Coasting in the
Countertransference
Psychoanalysis in a New Key Book Series
Volume 7
RT20608.indb 1 1/10/08 11:06:18 AM
Psychoanalysis in a New Key Book Series
DONNEL STERN, PH.D., SERIES EDITOR
Volume 1
Clinical Values:
Emotions That Guide Psychoanalytic Treatment
Sandra Buechler
Volume 2
What Do Mothers Want?
Contemporary Perspectives in Psychoanalysis and Related Disciplines
Sheila Brown
Volume 3
The Fallacy of Understanding / The Ambiguity of Change
Edgar A. Levenson
Volume 4
Prelogical Experience:
An Inquiry into Dreams & Other Creative Processes
Edward S. Tauber and Maurice R. Green
Volume 5
Prologue to Violence:
Child Abuse, Dissociation, and Crime
Abby Stein
Volume 6
Wounded by Reality:
Understanding and Treating Adult Onset Trauma
Ghislaine Boulanger
Volume 7
Coasting in the Countertransference:
Conflicts of Self Interest between Analyst and Patient
Irwin Hirsch
RT20608.indb 2 1/10/08 11:06:19 AM
Coasting in the
Countertransference
Conflicts of Self Interest between
Analyst and Patient
Irwin Hirsch
RT20608.indb 3 1/10/08 11:06:19 AM
Cover: © David Newman, Countertransference Collage #3, 1998. 14” x 17”, cut paper collage.
The Analytic Press The Analytic Press
Taylor & Francis Group Taylor & Francis Group
270 Madison Avenue 27 Church Road
New York, NY 10016 Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FA
© 2008 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-88163-480-8 (Softcover) 978-0-88163-455-6 (0)
Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Law, no part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, trans-
mitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval
system, without written permission from the publishers.
Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are
used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at
http://www.taylorandfrancis.com
and The Analytic Press Web site at
http://www.analyticpress.com
RT20608.indb 4 1/10/08 11:06:19 AM
In memory of my parents; for my wife—my love and
my life partner; and to my children and their children,
present and future—my joy and my inspiration.
RT20608.indb 5 1/10/08 11:06:19 AM
RT20608.indb 6 1/10/08 11:06:19 AM
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Foreword xiii
1 Coasting in the Countertransference: Analysts’ Pursuit
of Self-Interest 1
2 The Influence of Situational Factors, in Analysts’ Lives and
Analysts’ Preferred Relational States, on Analytic Participation 27
3 Analysts’ Character Structure and the Wish for Emotional
Equilibrium 53
4 Preferred Patients, Preferred Relational Configurations 81
5 Psychoanalytic Theory and Its Unexamined Comforts 109
6 Baldness 133
7 Money and the Therapeutic Frame 155
8 Money and the Ongoing Therapeutic Relationship 177
References 201
Index 217
vii
RT20608.indb 7 1/10/08 11:06:20 AM
RT20608.indb 8 1/10/08 11:06:20 AM
Acknowledgments
My parents, people of great integrity, uneducated and unworldly,
always made me feel loved and were proud of anything I did (or did
not do). I had lots of latitude and little expectancy or judgment from
them, and from preadolescence onward I always felt the freedom to
do as I wished. From this period forward, I had the good fortune
to develop what became enduring friendships, and these boys/men,
originally in the beloved Brooklyn of my youth, both broadened my
horizons and challenged me to be as smart and accomplished as
they were. With the generous help of the City College of New York’s
tuition-free education policy, I encountered some inspiring teachers
and interesting new friends of both sexes, and I became both more
intellectually alive and more ambitious. I disliked the behaviorally
oriented (Skinnerian) graduate school that accepted me, but I was
lucky to find some excellent psychoanalytically oriented colleagues
and mentors in the Veterans Administration’s psychology trainee
program. I also had a very kind and supportive dissertation supervi-
sor to help lead me through this alien graduate program.
Once back in New York City my route to psychoanalysis began
in earnest, first as a postdoctoral fellow at Albert Einstein College
of Medicine, and then at New York University’s Postdoctoral Pro-
gram in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. My teachers and super-
visors in both these venues were, by and large, outstanding. My
personal analysis was both illuminating and most helpful. As well,
I learned an enormous amount from my peers at these two institu-
tions, and to this day I deeply value these connections. During this
period I was first exposed to analytic thinking and writing that had
strong resonance, that excited me, and that ultimately inspired me
to begin writing myself. Prominent among these influential authors
are Harold Searles, Edgar Levenson, and, somewhat later, Merton
Gill. The psychoanalytic supervisors whose clinical thinking had the
ix
RT20608.indb 9 1/10/08 11:06:20 AM