Body talk: somatic countertransference

This article focuses on a clinically observed event: the impact of the analytic session on the corporeality of the psychotherapist. The author sees this as an example of countertransference, in this instance ‘somatic countertransference’. Short and long clinical extracts are used to detail these events. The author touches on some early ideas on somatizing. The Kleinian concept of projective identification is itself explored and then used to explore further the idea of somatic countertransference.