TY - JOUR A1 - Loiacono, Anna Maria T1 - Countertransference and Oedipal love T2 - International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 31 (No. 2, 2022), pp. 076-082. N2 - In this essay, the author will explore the use of countertransference in the therapeutic process, with particular emphasis on Oedipal love. We begin with countertransference as conceptualized by interpersonal psychoanalytic theorists, who immediately pointed out the technical relevance of the therapist as a person, and the importance of the use of the therapist’s feelings, thoughts, life experiences, and states of mind in the therapeutic relationship. Just as dreams, slips of the tongue, peripheral thoughts, and physical gestures are useful in reading the patient’s unconscious experience, accepting, examining, and exploring countertransference become useful in reading the analyst’s unconscious experience. The author will then identify a more radical and contemporary conception of countertransference as representative of the analyst’s unconscious receptivity to the patient within the enactments in which transference and countertransference reciprocally affect each other. Finally, the author will concentrate on the Oedipal feelings experienced by the therapist and their importance in treatment. A clinical case will illustrate the clinical ramifications of these hypotheses. Y1 - 2022 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-Fromm/frontdoor/index/index/docId/37782 ER -