Countertransference

Countertransference is the redirection of a therapist's own feelings toward a patient, the mirror image of transference, in which a patient redirects feelings onto the therapist. Sigmund Freud publicly introduced the term in 1910, describing it as arising from the effect a patient has on the analyst's own unconscious feelings, and he initially treated it as a problem for the analyst to recognize and overcome. Later psychoanalysts, including Paula Heimann and Carl Jung, argued that a therapist's countertransference reactions are not simply an obstacle but can also be useful clinical information about what a patient is unconsciously communicating. In practice, this means both the patient's and the therapist's own histories shape what happens in the therapeutic relationship. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/