The Analytic Encounter: Transference and Human Relationship

Depth psychotherapy consists of two persons meeting in order to try to understand what is going on in the unconscious of one of them. The relationship that develops between them involves both transference-countertransference reactions (projection) and genuine human feeling. What are the psychological dynamics behind this therapeutic encounter? how do they differ from what happens between two people in any situation? What is the difference between relationships based on projection and those characterized by psychological separation? And when is love not just projection? This revealing study, addressed to both layman and professional, offers answers to these questions from the point of view of Jungian psychology. "My concern," writes the author, "is with the psychological subtleties involved in any human encounter, and especially those in the intimate relationship that develops in analysis."