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The Pregnant Psychotherapist: A Potent Transference Stimulus
Author(s) -
Gottlieb Sue
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
british journal of psychotherapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.442
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1752-0118
pISSN - 0265-9883
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-0118.1989.tb01085.x
Subject(s) - psychology , countertransference , ambivalence , psychoanalytic theory , psychotherapist , psychoanalysis , projective identification , transference , identification (biology) , developmental psychology , botany , biology
SUMMARY The pregnant therapist is not often encountered in the psychoanalytic literature, and yet my patients were profoundly affected by my pregnancy. The patient described attempted to recreate in the transference the lost, longed‐for symbiotic mother. Identification with the (fantasised) baby was the main form of defence against separation from the idealised mother and awareness of ambivalence. In the countertransference I developed a corresponding form of primary maternal preoccupation. The primary identification with mother is thus potentially available for exploration in a particularly clear form. Also outlined are some of the countertransference difficulties to be encountered.