Erotized transference reconsidered: expanding the countertransference dimension

A reconsideration of the erotized transference from a contemporary perspective has been presented utilizing detailed case material provided by Stoller. The main thesis is that this type of transference, traditionally conceived as a product of a particular kind of patient often felt to be borderline, is better understood as arising in a specific intersubjective context involving both participants in the psychoanalytic situation. The focus is on the intricate interaction of analyst and patient, recognizing that either may serve as a selfobject for the other. This view assumes a more expanded countertransference role than recognized in the earlier literature. The psychoanalytic situation can be erotized by either or both participants. A corollary thesis is that the details of a patient's fantasy should also be viewed as codetermined and that imbedded within it might be the patient's subjective experience of the psychoanalytic interaction. Alluded to peripherally is that the erotized transference in the interaction between male analyst and female patient is, in part, a manifestation of traditional roles assumed in situations involving a male authority figure in close engagement with a female who perceives herself as relatively powerless. This issue has recently received considerable attention from writers who have addressed themselves to the important gender issues in psychoanalysis.