Countertransference and the Erotic

• Published in: Journal of religion and health 2009-03, Vol.48 (1), p.90-96
• Main Author: Ulanov, Ann Belford
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aging; Clinical Psychology; Countertransference; Countertransference (Psychology); Erotica - psychology; Fires; Humans; Libido; Love; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Original Paper; Psyche; Psyche, History and Culture: Studies in Creative Interpretation and Practice; Psychoanalysis; Public Health; Religious Studies; Sexuality; Somatosensory perception; Soul; Subjectivity; Transference; Unconscious mind
• ISSN: 0022-4197; 1573-6571
• DOI: 10.1007/s10943-008-9213-y

Eros is like a huge spark that ignites our passion and then confronts us with the problem of living out this fire in ordinary space and time. What do we each know of this spark, this flame? Who or what was it's object? Where have we felt this force for unity in ourselves, with another person, with life itself? Where are we unlived erotically? Where are the chinks in our erotic life? In focusing on the erotic in clinical work, we usually begin with the analysand's transference. I want to explore eros in the life of the analyst for our relation to eros influences the clinical work we do. When eros is constellated, two posibilities of relationship present themselves: to an actual other who must be reckoned with as real, and to a psychic content, equally real, which we do not invent or control. How do we experience this electricity? What is our desire like? What does it take us back to, and toward what unseen purpose does it propel us? Eros brings with it a sense of purpose, of going somewhere important, something that enlists body, soul, and spirit.