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Listening With the Body: An Exploration in the Countertransference
Author(s) -
Field Nathan
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.tb01110.x
Subject(s) - psychology , countertransference , feeling , active listening , unconscious mind , psychotherapist , relevance (law) , psychoanalysis , transference , cognitive psychology , psychoanalytic theory , social psychology , political science , law
. This paper describes a specific but little‐discussed manifestation of the countertransference: namely the spontaneous arousal of physical feelings in the therapist. It considers three questions arising from this phenomenon: (1) Are they meaningless bodily sensations or evidence of unconscious communication from the patient? (2) If the latter, do they have any therapeutic relevance? (3) What sort of psychological mechanism might enable such messages to be transmitted?