Hate in countertransference. From consulting room to psychoanalytic institution (Simona Reghintovschi)

Abstract: The practice of psychoanalysis places theanalyst on strong pressures – the analystworks alone in the consulting room in amedium of isolation, he has to bepermanently open to what is coming fromthe patient, he is emotionally affected byhis patients and he has the responsibility tokeep and maintain professional boundariesof this relationship. Hate incountertransference could generate aparticular conflict in the analyst – conflictbetween his need to repair, to help hispatient, and the hate he feels toward thepatient. There is another side ofpsychoanalysis as a profession, in additionto the clinical practice –the psychoanalyticinstitutions. Intolerance to diversity,dogmatism and the proneness to schismcan be seen as institutional symptoms. Some authors offer explanations fromdifferent perspectives – political,sociological, and even religious. The author suggests that in order to understandconflicts in psychoanalytic institutions onemust take into account the anonymouspsychoanalytic patient who maintains thepsychoanalysis as a profession, and arguethat hate in countertransference could beseen as one of the sources of conflictbetween colleagues.