Chapter 1

Transference and countertransference

Concepts are drawers in which knowledge may be classified; they are also ready made
garments which do away with the individuality of knowledge that has been experienced.
The concept soon becomes lifeless thinking since, by definition, it is classified thinking.
(Bachelard 1958: 74)

In this chapter I will give some background to my understanding of the term ‘transference’ as
it applies in psychoanalysis. Before doing so I would like to make the point that it is merely a
concept; that is, a convenient way of structuring experience through language. Present-day
analysts and analytic psychotherapists are expected to discover the meaning of this concept
in a very personal way; through the training analysis. This concept, although fundamentally
based on Freud’s original idea, is always being modified, discussed and re-evaluated. Thus
transference is rarely applied as lifeless thinking, but the above quote from Bachelard is a
useful reminder of the danger in attempting to conceptualise the experience of another
person.
Copyright © 1999. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. All rights reserved.

TRANSFERENCE
Transference is traditionally regarded as the transferring of emotion, which was usually first
experienced in infancy or childhood, on to any new situation in which a close relationship
with another human being is involved. Although in analysis, an intense transference
develops, all human relations contain elements of transference, which is primarily
unconscious. Freud came to the understanding that something of this sort was occurring
when he noticed that female patients particularly, tended to fall in love with their analysts.
However, the concept was not limited to female patients. The case of Anna O, a patient of
Freud’s friend and colleague Breuer, is famous. She discovered that her symptoms were

Schaverien, J. (1999). The revealing image : Analytical art psychotherapy in theory and practice. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
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 relieved when she recounted to Breuer the events of the day that had just passed. It was she
who called this the ‘talking cure’ (Jones 1953–55: I, 246). The intensity of the involvement
which developed with this patient worried Breuer to the extent that he decided to terminate
the treatment. This caused an immediate relapse of symptoms, this time with a definite sexual
‘colour’. It became apparent that, although not conscious at the time, there had been an erotic
aspect to the relationship between doctor and patient. Gradually Freud came to notice this to
be a common feature of analysis, by which it appeared to be generated. At first he regarded
this as a problem for psychoanalysis, as a resistance that must be overcome (Freud 1912).
However he was soon to realise that this falling in love was a regression which, although
generated by the analysis, was actually a repetition of an earlier state. As such, this revealed
the origin of the neurosis. By 1915 he had come to understand ‘transference love’ as the main
pivot of the treatment and, rather than regarding it as resistance, realised that it was the
working material of the analysis. In 1912 Freud wrote that the pattern for conducting erotic
life is laid down in the early years of life. Whatever this pattern, it will influence the aims and
objects of love in later life. ‘If the need for love has not been satisfied the person is bound to
approach every new person he meets with libidinal anticipatory ideas’ (Freud 1912: 100).
Some such impulses are conscious but others remain unconscious, and it is these unconscious
libidinal impulses which become dominant in the analysis. It is the task of the doctor,
according to Freud, to get the patient to submit these to

intellectual consideration and to understand them in the light of their psychical value.
This struggle between doctor and patient, between intellect and instinctual life, between
understanding and seeking to act is played out almost exclusively in the phenomena of
transference.
(Freud: 1912: 108)

The technique of transference analysis, in particular the need for abstinence, is discussed
in the 1915 paper. Freud emphasises that the patient’s desires should be allowed to persist,
rather than being gratified; it is this which brings the unconscious impulse to consciousness.
Gratification of the desires would merely repeat in ‘real life what she ought only to have
remembered’ (Freud 1915: 166). In this sense, acting out is a defence against remembering.
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The analyst, Freud says, must show that he is proof against every temptation and then he will
be in a position to ‘extract from the situation its analytic content’ (Freud 1915: 166). The
transference is no longer considered only as resistance, it is itself the mobilising force for
change.
Szasz (1963) describes the concept of transference as a scientific concept for managing a
potentially disruptive situation in which the analyst participates as a person. The concept of
transference is a way of framing the patient’s experience, and it can be used as a defence for
the analyst. Although this is not its intended purpose, transference provides a way of enabling
the analyst to distance him/herself. Szasz reiterates the point, made by Freud, that the analytic
situation differs from other relationships where transference occurs. In analysis an intense

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 transference develops, and it is the task of the analytic situation to study and learn from these
transferences (Szasz 1963: 434). Szasz introduces the idea that the concept of transference is
a way of regarding the ‘therapist as symbol’ and this renders the ‘therapist as person’
invulnerable. He likens the ‘therapist as symbol’, to the flag which is the symbol of a nation;
‘it can be captured by the enemy, attacked, destroyed, but the nation it symbolises lives on’
(Szasz 1963: 442). There is a danger in this view, that the therapist may regard the patient’s
perception of him or her as solely symbolic and this would damage the patient by denying his
or her reality. ‘The analytic situation requires the therapist to function as both, and the patient
to see him as both, a real and a symbolic person’ (Szasz 1963: 442). In drawing attention to
the fact that Freud never intended that transference interpretation should deny the patient’s
reality, Szasz was refuting the idea of the analyst as merely a blank screen onto which the
patient projects. Transference is a way of framing the patient’s experience, but it does so in
order to enable a connection which is both deep and intimate to take place. It creates
sufficient distance for the analyst to remain detached, at the same time as being involved as a
person.
Like Szasz, Greenson (1967) who is a Freudian analyst, makes the point that while the
inappropriateness of a reaction may indicate that it is transference, it is important to
distinguish between this and an appropriate response, which is part of the real relationship.
Following Freud, Greenson divides the therapeutic relationship into three parts. Although
these are artificial divisions they are particularly useful when considering the role of the
picture within the therapeutic relationship. These three are: the real relationship, the
therapeutic alliance and the transference.
The real relationship is the real and genuine relationship between analyst and patient
which enables a comparison between what is real in the patient’s experience and what is real
in the analyst’s. For Greenson the real relationship includes the analyst admitting both errors
and a certain amount of human frailty, but without doing so excessively and thus burdening
the patient.
The therapeutic alliance (Greenson calls this the working alliance but I shall use the more
common term ‘therapeutic alliance') is the alliance which the patient makes with the analyst,
whereby there is an agreement to work together, to observe the transference. This alliance is
based on trust, non-sexual liking and mutual respect, which is an essential basis if new
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insights are to be risked. For the patient to make this split a certain ego strength is required.
Whatever the transference reactions, a part of the patient is accessible to function, with the
analyst, as observer. Together the two attempt to understand the meanings of the
transferences. There are stages in the treatment, particularly of very fragmented patients,
where this split is impossible to make or to sustain. In this case the therapist will maintain
this position for both without necessarily making interpretations.
The transference, whether it is acknowledged or not, is inevitably present in any
therapeutic interaction. According to Greenson (1967) the two outstanding characteristics of
transference are that it is both repetition and inappropriate. He states that all transference is
characterised by ambivalence. This is a term which Freud attributes to Bleuler (Freud 1912:

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 106). This means that whatever the current manifestation of the transference its counterpart
will also be present, although not necessarily overtly evident. So, if there is an obvious
negative transference it is important for the therapist to be vigilant in order to pick up its
counterpart, the positive response which is likely to be unconscious. Similarly, if the current
transference is positive, its unconscious negative counterpart will also be present. This may
break through in small ways, for example in the occasional sarcastic remark, or in allusions
to another person who the patient dislikes. Greenson states that if there is no negative
transference over a period of time, this is because there is resistance to permitting it to
penetrate consciousness, or because the patient is ‘splitting’, and so focusing the negative
feelings elsewhere. This is common, particularly with borderline patients (Rosenfeld 1965),
who may focus negative feelings outside the analysis for fear of damaging the analyst.
Another possibility is that the analyst’s countertransference may be preventing the
recognition of some form of hatred. Greenson points out that the analyst can contaminate the
analytic situation by ‘evasiveness or a natural tendency to respond emotionally to the
patient’s needs’ (Greenson 1967: 279). The analyst needs to have the flexibility to respond,
but also to be able to withdraw again to the position of objective observer. Other responses
may be taken as rewards or punishments. ‘The technical task is to encourage the fullest
expression of the feelings and at the right moment to work on the patient’s resistances’
(Greenson 1967: 118).
It is notable that Greenson, who is a Freudian analyst in the classical tradition, makes the
point that transferences can occur to inanimate objects. He says transference reactions may
occur towards:

People who perform a special function which originally was carried out by the parents.
Thus, lovers, leaders, authorities, physicians, teachers, performers and celebrities are
particularly prone to activate transference responses. Furthermore transference reactions
can also occur to animals, to inanimate objects, and to institutions, but here too, analysis
will demonstrate that they are derived from the important people of early childhood.
(Greenson 1967: 154, author’s emphasis)

Throughout the book it is my thesis that transferences are made to the pictures in analytical
Copyright © 1999. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. All rights reserved.

art psychotherapy. It substantiates the case that I am making to locate it within the frame of
the psychoanalytic tradition, even though I shall be approaching this idea from the viewpoint
of different disciplines. I shall be drawing on Greenson, particularly his division of the
analytic situation, because the split between the therapeutic alliance and the transference,
which he delineates, operates in a particular way in analytical art psychotherapy. The
therapeutic alliance may sustain the relationship while sometimes the main transference takes
place in the picture, or between the patient and the picture. This will be discussed in more
detail in Chapter 2 where I will discuss the scapegoat transference.
Racker (1968) who was a Kleinian analyst, points out that every situation in analysis is
actually ‘internal’ including the transference. He says: ‘the principles of analysis lead to an

Schaverien, J. (1999). The revealing image : Analytical art psychotherapy in theory and practice. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
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 intensification of the conflictual object relations which in the infant were external and are
now internal’ (Racker 1968: 73). So that when affect first experienced in the past becomes
activated, it is alive and present between analyst and analysand. The danger which was
associated with the particular affect in the past, is now also live and present. In the
transference the internal conflicts are again turned into external ones and so the analysand
experiences ‘anxiety, tension, pain and the need for love’. But there is another side of the
psychoanalytic process; ‘it unites what is separate, connects what is disconnected and is thus
essentially an expression of eros’ (Racker 1968: 73). He goes on to indicate that the libido
mobilised by the analyst’s non-judgemental attitude evokes not only the need for love, but
also the capacity for loving. So that it is psychoanalysis ‘itself that also leads, because it
contains eros, to a greater intensity of the transference’ (Racker 1968: 73).

COUNTERTRANSFERENCE
When such powerful material is activated there is clearly a necessity for the therapist to have
a way of distancing him or herself from the feelings which it evokes without cutting off. If
the patient is to be encouraged to observe his or her own responses, then the therapist needs
to also observe his or her own in order to contaminate the situation as little as possible. Anais
Nin, a writer who worked as an analyst, was a pupil of Otto Rank, one of Freud’s earliest
colleagues (Jones 1953–5). In her journals Nin gives insight into her innermost thoughts and
feelings, including those relating to this phase in her life. Eventually she gave up her work as
an analyst and she describes its effect on her:

I lost weight, sleep, I was haunted by the troubles of my patients. Their nightmares
became my nightmares. I could not enjoy my own life, I thought about them and how to
help them day and night. I was ill with their illness in sympathy, in empathy. I felt
submerged and desperate not to be able to save all the wounded. I went as far as I could
in giving of my strength. I was depleted and drained of all I had to give.
(Nin 1967: vol. 2, 43)

Nin’s honesty is a help in understanding just how powerful are the effects of
countertransference. With hindsight it is relatively easy to make comments about what might
Copyright © 1999. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. All rights reserved.

have been happening, in this case, in terms of the different types of unresolved
countertransferences that may have been operating. However to discuss it thus would be to
exploit the openness of this writer. Whatever way we might be inclined to interpret this
passage, what is clearly demonstrated is the power and the intensity of the feelings which are
engendered within the therapeutic relationship, even for the therapist.
Like Anais Nin many art therapists are artists who, armed with a degree in art and a one-
year training in art therapy, enter into this work, often with highly disturbed patients.
Consequently they too may find themselves prey to the same kind of emotional stress which
Nin describes so vividly. Although there is a recommendation that newly qualified

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 practitioners should have supervision from an experienced colleague, the effects of the
countertransference may still, at times, feel overwhelming.
The original Freudian view was that countertransference was the analyst’s transference to
the patient and, as such, it should be eliminated by further analysis of the analyst. From this
position the countertransference was the analyst’s projection of her or his unresolved
transference needs into the analytic situation. This continues to be regarded as one dimension
of the countertransference which, when it arises, needs the immediate attention of the analyst.
However, over the years a far wider view of countertransference has developed, and it is now
considered by most analysts to be the total response of the analyst to ‘the patient’s reality as
well as to his transference’ (Kernberg 1975: 49). The countertransference is both conscious
and unconscious, and ‘although it should certainly be resolved, [it is] useful in gaining more
understanding of the patient’ (Kernberg 1975: 49). This view was developed from a seminal
paper, written by Heimann in 1949, in which she discussed the idea that ‘the analyst’s
unconscious understands that of his patient’ and ‘this rapport at a deep level ... is the most
dynamic way in which his patient’s voice reaches him’ (Heimann 1950: 82). This paper was
closely followed by another by Little (1986), who discusses the confusion caused by
attempting to write about countertransference separately from transference; the two are so
inextricably linked that when writing about the one, the other is inevitably included. Little
attempted to clarify the different uses of the term. She wrote that the countertransference may
be used to mean any or all of the following:

a) The analyst’s unconscious attitude to the patient.

b) Repressed elements, hitherto unanalysed in the analyst himself which attach to the
patient ...
c) Some specific mechanisms with which the analyst meets the patient’s transference.
d) The whole of the analyst’s attitudes and behavior towards his patient. This includes all
the others and any unconscious attitudes as well.
(Little 1986: 34)

Racker discusses countertransference in terms of the law of talion. Thus positive transference
will generate a positive countertransference, and a negative transference will evoke a
Copyright © 1999. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. All rights reserved.

negative response. These reactions may well be unconscious, but recognition of them is
essential if the ‘analyst is to avoid “drowning” in the countertransference’ (Racker 1968:
137). The analyst who is unaware of this aspect of the countertransference may be drawn into
the ‘vicious circle of the analysand’s neurosis, which will hinder the work of therapy’
(Racker 1968: 137). Little (1986) suggests that even in self-analysis there is an analyst and an
analysand. In self-analysis the transference and countertransference are responses to parts of
the self. Just as in analysis, with two people present, a split would be made between the
observer and the active agent parts of the self. Whereas in analysis the presence of the analyst
is a reminder of the analytic task, in self-analysis both positions must be maintained without
the presence of an external observer. The whole is an internal process and as such it is

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 difficult to maintain the objective position when it becomes uncomfortable to do so, or when
the material in question is truly unconscious.
It is here that one of the distinctive qualities of analytical art psychotherapy is revealed:
one aspect of analytical art psychotherapy is self-analysis through pictures. The picture offers
an alternative external presence, it is an object which exists outside of the artist, and yet a
part of her or him temporarily inhabits it. A split is made between the part of the person who
makes the picture (the artist part) and the part which views the picture (the viewer). These
may both be operating at the same time but with different priorities. For example, the artist
part of the self makes the picture, during which time she or he is totally absorbed in it.
Meanwhile the viewer part of the self watches, as if from a distance, intervening as little as
possible. When the picture is finished the artist will stand back to view it, and now the roles
are reversed. The viewer comes to the fore and the artist watches, as if from a distance, while
the viewer responds to the picture. We could understand this process as the artist-self making
a transference to the picture and the viewer-self, like the therapist, bringing a more objective
response to the picture. She or he considers its meanings and implications, and makes links.
Although self-analysis is an element which is fundamental in analytical art psychotherapy,
this is by no means all there is to the process. The self-analysis usually takes place within the
context of a therapeutic relationship and so all the usual psychoanalytic transference
dynamics are at play. This will be pursued in greater detail in Chapter 2 where I discuss the
scapegoat transference to the picture. For the purposes of this chapter it is important to note
that this is one very particular way in which transference and countertransference operate in
analytical art psychotherapy.

THE UNCONSCIOUS
The ways in which transference and countertransference effects are understood, and so
applied, rest on the ways in which the particular practitioner understands the unconscious.
Although there was a notion of an unconscious mind before Freud, it was he who brought it
into the realms of psychiatry and psychoanalysis (Whyte 1959; Ellenberger 1970). It is well
known how, through observation of subjects under hypnosis, Freud came to the conclusion
that there was a ‘special region of the mind shut off from the rest’ (Freud 1916: 278). The
Copyright © 1999. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. All rights reserved.

theory is that once-conscious wishes and impulses are repressed because they are of an
unacceptable nature. For Freud these impulses usually relate to infantile sexuality or trauma.
It is when these repressed impulses begin to come alive and so are experienced in the present
in the transference, that the neurosis becomes activated and so there is possibility of change.
Freud distinguishes between pre-conscious and unconscious; pre-conscious material can be
recalled to consciousness by introspection, whereas unconscious material is truly beyond
conscious recall (MacIntyre 1958: 29). In the transference repressed contents of the psyche
come into the present in their original form. The transference mobilises unconscious affect
and it is through this re-experiencing that the unconscious becomes conscious.
Jung’s view of the unconscious departed from that of Freud. He made a distinction
between the personal and the collective unconscious:

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 A more or less superficial layer of the unconscious is undoubtedly personal. I call it the
personal unconscious. But this personal unconscious rests upon a deeper layer, which
does not derive from personal experience and is not a personal acquisition but is inborn.
This deeper layer I call the collective unconscious.
(Jung 1959a: 3)

The collective unconscious is thus viewed as the source of consciousness. It is known that,
while Freud’s patients were mostly neurotic, Jung worked extensively with schizophrenic
patients. It may have been this which initially led Jung to make the distinction between the
two types of unconscious. He observed that while neurotic material can be integrated without
appreciable injury to the ego, psychotic states can swamp the ego. Jung’s psychology was
influenced by his studies of Eastern philosophy. In his introduction to The Secret of the
Golden Flower (Jung and Wilhelm 1931), which is subtitled The Chinese Book of Life, Jung
acknowledges this although he says that it was only after he had developed his theory of
individuation that he discovered that he had been ‘unconsciously led along that secret way
which has been the preoccupation of the best minds of the East for centuries’ (Jung and
Wilhelm 1931: 86). The idea of the resolution of opposites, which underlies much of Jung’s
work, is an ancient one which is to be found as the root of much religious philosophy.
The collective unconscious is expressed in archetypes. These are universally recurring
‘archaic or primordial types’ which transcend time and cultural boundaries. ‘The archetype is
a psychosomatic concept, linking body and psyche, instinct and image’ (Samuels et al. 1986:
26). Archetypes underlie the impact of fairy tales, myths, certain rituals and traditions. They
are also recognisable in the dreams and images which are created by the individual human
psyche. However they do not actually take on form; rather they are the underlying element
which influences the choice of a certain image at a particular time. They are also evident in
acts and in feelings. There are personal reasons for the activation of certain archetypes at a
particular time in the life of an individual; so, although the source is universal, there is also a
personal dimension. It is noticeable that certain people in comparable psychic states may
produce very similar archetypal reactions or images. Samuels et al. (1986) point out that it
was important to Jung to stress that it was not the content of an image which is the archetype
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but rather the ‘unconscious and irrepresentable outline or pattern that is fundamental’. So
they establish that there is a difference between ‘the archetype per se' an ‘an archetypal
image realisable by man’ (Samuels et al. 1986: 26) It is this archetypal dimension which
gives certain pictures made by patients in therapy their numinosity. The pictures which have
this quality are then, not archetypes given form, but rather archetypal images; that is, images
generated by a certain archetype.
Jung understood both from his own experience and from observing his patients, that
making pictures was a useful method of getting in touch with the healing aspects of the
unconscious. He encouraged some of his patients to paint in order to escape the censor of the
conscious mind: ‘In cases of high degree of conscious cramp ... the hands alone can fantasy;

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 they model and draw figures that are often foreign to the conscious mind’ (Jung and Wilhelm
1931: 94). When powerful, archetypally derived imagery appears in the pictures, its effects
can be awe-inspiring, such that verbal interpretation is both impossible and irrelevant. The
image is seen and recognised by patient and therapist. This mutual recognition is likely to be
partly conscious and partly unconscious, and is the first stage in the patient’s acceptance of
the image. The unconscious dimension can be so powerful that patient and therapist are held
in a mutual bond, a fascination for the spell which the image weaves. Jung emphasises that
the archetypes can never be ‘fully integrated, nor lived out in human form. Analysis involves
a growing awareness of the archetypal dimension in a person’s life’ (Samuels et al. 1986: 27).
The pictures offer one way in which this awareness matures to consciousness. Through the
seeing of the image in the picture, the patient’s relationship to unconscious material begins to
change. The therapist needs to be conscious of the power of such archetypal material and
aware when it is present. It is all too easy for patient and therapist to be drawn into the vortex
of such imagery and the relationship may then remain in a state of mutual unconsciousness.

JUNGIAN APPROACHES TO TRANSFERENCE

Jung’s major work on transference, The Psychology of the Transference (1946), relates the
transference of psychotherapy to an alchemical text, the Rosarium Philosophorum (1550).
The work is illustrated with a series of woodcuts which show the sexual union of the royal
couple; this is the coniunctio oppositorium. Jung links this to the resolution of opposites, or
of division within the individual psyche, which is transformed through the psychotherapeutic
transference. This is discussed in detail in connection with the case study in Chapter 8. Jung
acknowledges Freud in discussing transference as a manifestation of eros, ‘this bond is often
of such intensity that we could almost speak of a “combination". When two chemical
substances combine, both are altered. This is precisely what happens in the transference’
(Jung 1946: 7). Later in the same work he continues: ‘alchemy describes, not merely in
general outline but often in astonishing detail, the same psychological phenomenology which
can be observed in the analysis of unconscious processes’ (Jung 1946: 34). In this work Jung
has often been accused of being obscure; however, as Samuels (1989) has shown, Jung’s
alchemical metaphor is a useful means of understanding the transference in psychotherapy.
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This metaphor is not merely a mystical approach but is a means of finding a frame of
reference for the transforming power of the interpersonal processes which take place in
therapy: ‘in order for psychological transformation to result from analytical interaction, that
interaction must acquire and radiate something of an erotic nature. The interpersonal
coniunctio inspires and ignites the internal coniunctio’ (Samuels 1989: 187). Schwartz-Salant
(1989b) discusses Jung’s alchemical metaphor, in relation to Klein’s theory of projective
identification. He points out that Jung published The Psychology of the Transference in the
same year that Klein published ‘Notes on some schizoid mechanisms’ (1946). He suggests
that although Jung’s work did not have the impact that Klein’s did at the time it was
published, it offers an elaboration of Klein’s findings and ‘helps delineate the ‘limitations of
employing the concept of projective identification’ (Schwartz-Salant 1989b: 39). Although

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 processes of projective identification are at the base of some of Jung’s writings on the
transference, these same processes may be understood to have an unconscious impact which
is founded on the archetypes. Schwartz-Salant points out that in psychotherapy there is an
interactive area which is in-between the two people. This is the area which is known, in
alchemy, as Mercurius; that is the term which was used for ‘the third area and the processes
which occurred in that area’ (Schwartz-Salant 1988: 43). He says that the tradition of
alchemy was ‘primarily interested in the union of opposites in the individual’ and it was Jung
who ‘took the Rosarium as a series of images representing unconscious processes between
two people’ (Schwartz-Salant 1988: 42). Mercurius, which is also the ‘subtle body’, is a
‘hidden area through which projections pass’. This is the interactive area, the imaginal world,
and it is in this area he suggests, that there is an unconscious couple which operates in-
between the analyst and patient. It is here that transformations take place. He says that the
unconscious couple has both energy and structure which, when it becomes conscious, can be
seen to have been ‘influencing the conscious personalities all along:

one then moves out of a sphere of omnipotence in which the analyst knows more than the
patient, and into the domain in which both people can discover how they have, so to
speak, been acting out a mutual dream, or how they have been dreamed. At this point
they are in psyche as much as it is inside of them ...
(Schwartz-Salant 1988: 50)

The pictures, as I shall show in Chapter 8, sometimes reveal such an unconscious couple. The
pictures are a concrete manifestation of the imaginal world. Sometimes the unconscious
couple in the interactive area, who influence the conscious personalities, are depicted. This
may at times deepen the transference but at others it may free the patient and therapist from
the archetypal constellation in which they are held.
Transference does not occur without some object to kindle the fire; in analytical art
psychotherapy the picture is sometimes that object. When archetypal imagery appears in
pictures the fire which already exists may be intensified, or one that apparently did not
previously exist sparks into life. These pictures produce an empowered form of relating
which draws the artist/patient and therapist/viewer into a deep transference to the picture
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itself; and also to each other through the picture. In these pictures, that which usually remains
unseen, unstated, even unconscious, between people is evident and cannot be completely
denied. The purpose of therapy is to mediate in the divided, inner world of the patient, and
the picture offers a means of just such mediation. It is the picture which is, so to speak, the
Mercurius in which the transformation takes place; it is the picture which reveals the
interactive space. If there is an unconscious couple, as Schwartz-Salent suggests, and I will
show pictures that indicate that there is in Chapter 8, then their antics may be played out in
full view of the analytic couple. Thus the dream world which they inhabit, the interactive
area, is present and visible and undeniably evident. The picture becomes an embodiment of

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 the processes which operate within the individual and between the pair; or, in group work,
the group.
The central importance of imagery in psychotherapy is acknowledged by the archetypal
psychologists. These are Jungian analysts who regard the manifestation of archetypal
material to be the main transforming potential of the psyche. Their leading exponent is James
Hillman, who calls the work of therapy ‘soul making’. His view of the transference is based
on Jung’s linking of eros and psyche through the coniunctio and he acknowledges Freud’s
contribution, but he also departs from both of them. Hillman reverses the idea of transference
and countertransference. He says: ‘We are in transference wherever we go, wherever a
connection means something to the soul’ (Hillman 1972: 107–8). He suggests that the
process begins from the analyst’s countertransference. Transference he finds deceptive; it is
seen against too personal a background and as the incest desire is ‘impossible’, the analysand
remains stuck in the transference. The transference is historical, according to Hillman and, as
the analysand is stuck in this past, the way out of it is through ‘the spark of another’s eros’
which rekindles the personal process. He says: ‘my own individuation impulse, my desire for
psyche, must be ignited. This love for psyche – and not the analysis of “transference
reactions” – alone resolves the stuck transference’ (Hillman 1972: 110). The analytic task for
Hillman is the ‘engendering of soul through love’, and for this the countertransference is
prior to the transference. The beginning is the analyst’s desire, which reverses the idea that
the analysis begins with the transferring of old patterns onto the analyst. The analyst’s desire
is to bring ‘the health of awareness, imagination, and beauty to life in the soul and to
constellate with his psyche the eros of the other’ (Hillman 1972: 109). In using myth the
analyst is transferring the coniunctio myths upon the analysand, and the analysand counters
these effects from the start. This is not resistance but the countering of the effects of soul
making which she or he seeks and simultaneously fears. Viewed thus there are different
pitfalls than those traditionally levelled at analysts. Instead of the analyst taking the role of
mirror or knowing ‘Wise Old Man’, Hillman suggests that the danger is that he will become
the loving fool, who sees only his creation reflected in the other (Hillman 1972: 109).
Although Hillman is opposed to transference analysis he uses the concept of transference
creatively; transference is evoked, brought to life through the countertransference which
brings eros to bear in the present. Hillman aims to avoid pathologising the psyche, a tendency
Copyright © 1999. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. All rights reserved.

he sees in traditional methods. There is nothing ‘wrong’ with the psyche, rather it seeks
initiation through the process of soul making, for which a specific type of relationship with
another human being is required.
Hillman’s approach and that of others from the archetypal school, such as Watkins
(1976), in particular, is of great interest to many art therapists. This is because, above all,
they demonstrate respect for the images produced by their patients. These are not necessarily
painted, but they are given space to develop without premature interpretation, which so easily
destroys them. This group has a fundamental belief that the psyche will find the images it
requires at the time when they are needed. As an art therapist I have observed this in the
pictures which have emerged unbidden, in the work of different patients over the years. This

Schaverien, J. (1999). The revealing image : Analytical art psychotherapy in theory and practice. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
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 is the base line of analytical art psychotherapy, the well from which the whole process
springs. However I consider that analysis of the transference is also important, if the imagery
which emerges in the pictures is to be truly acknowledged and reconciled. Whilst accepting
Jung’s position that not all archetypal imagery can be integrated, I consider with him that a
mature and adult separation can be achieved only if the imagery is known. Some aspects of it
can be integrated whilst others are accepted as the collective background against which the
personal can be understood. The power of the imagery which sometimes manifests in
pictures is such that, without the development of a conscious attitude, the patient-therapist
pair may remain psychically fixed in a mutual unconsciousness which holds them in thrall.

SOUL MAKING: TRANSFERENCE IN ART AND LITERATURE

According to Hillman we are in transference ‘wherever a connection means something to the
soul’ (Hillman 1972: 107). Thus it is not exclusively in the therapeutic relationship that
transference occurs. We saw earlier that Freud and Jung, among other analysts, have
acknowledged that transference is an everyday occurrence and not one merely limited to the
consulting room. Art could also be described as ‘soul making’. In connection with Cassirer,
in the introduction, we saw that art might be understood as mediating between the material
world and the world of spirit. One purpose of art could then be the making of soul, first for
the artist, and then, secondly, for the audience. The motivation for the ‘making of soul’, as
Hillman suggests, is often some form of suffering; it is this which drives the patient to seek
help in the first place. The artist may be driven by a similar need and seeks solace in her or
his art work.
Edvard Munch, the Norwegian artist, is quoted as saying: ‘I shouldn't like to be without
suffering, how much of my art I owe to suffering’ (Munch, quoted in Messer undated: 66).
The appeal of many of Munch’s paintings and woodcuts is partly that his suffering is evident
in them. Even for those who do not know his story, it is clear that these pictures reveal the
tragic aspects of his life. In some he is exorcising the effects of the death of his mother in his
early childhood, followed by the death of his beloved sister a few years later. In others there
is the quest for the ideal woman who can never be found. It is likely that his idea of woman
was permanently influenced by these early experiences; certainly relationships between the
Copyright © 1999. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. All rights reserved.

people in his pictures are always flawed by betrayal, loss or jealousy. Like many artists of his
time and since, Munch’s work could be understood as a personal quest, as a journey. The
work is certainly personal, but it also touches on issues which are universal, as is borne out
by his continued public acclaim.
It is possible to assume that Munch’s pictures played a central role in his life. Such an
intense and continuing engagement could be described in different ways depending on one’s
point of view. It might be deemed a libidinal involvement; it might be regarded as being
tempered with eros; alternatively it is possible to rest at the conclusion that the artist just
wanted to make the picture. However one chooses to frame it, there is little doubt that the
picture is, for the artist, ‘a connection which means something to the soul’ (Hillman 1972:

Schaverien, J. (1999). The revealing image : Analytical art psychotherapy in theory and practice. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Created from ikoninstituteau on 2023-06-19 01:52:23.
 107). Thus, in following Hillman, it would be possible to say that the artist was ‘in
transference’.
The viewer may, or may not be on some sort of personal quest when viewing the picture.
Her or his experience is related to, and even dependent on, the engagement of the artist which
has resulted in this picture. There may be an instant recognition and a corresponding feeling
of rapport with the artist which is mediated through the picture. Although the artist and
viewer never meet, this connection may be soul making for the viewer; thus the viewer too is
‘in transference’. This transference is a response to the artist’s initial transference and it is
evoked through the picture, so this could be called a countertransference; the viewer then has
a countertransference response to the picture.
In literature there is a similar transference and countertransference between writer and
reader, which is vividly evoked in the following passage:

We ‘write a room’, ‘read a room’, or ‘read a house’. Thus very quickly, at the very first
word, at the first poetic overture, the reader who is ‘reading a room’, leaves off reading
and starts to think of some place in his own past. You would have liked to interest the
reader in yourself, whereas you have unlocked the door to daydreaming. The values of
intimacy are so absorbing that the reader has ceased to read your room: he sees his own
again. He is already far off, listening to the recollections of a father or a grandmother, of
a mother or a servant, of ‘the old faithful servant’, in short, of the human being who
dominates the corner of his most cherished memories.
(Bachelard 1958: 14)

This passage offers graphic insight into the ways in which, through literature or through
pictures, we are induced to participate in the process of soul making. Whether as viewers of
pictures or as readers of literature, we are led along the path travelled by the artist or writer,
and this has some correspondence with our own imaginal world. Through associations
evoked by a story, the reader’s past is brought to life and the feelings associated with it are
mobilised in the present. Thus art and literature offer an important connection for both
writer/artist and reader/viewer, and this too may be understood as a ‘transference’ with its
corresponding ‘countertransference’.
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There is an affinity for the spaces of the past, even when the reality of the past was
troubled; there is a nostalgia, a regret, for that which is no more, and that which never was.
Perhaps this is an affinity for melancholia itself. An extreme version of this sort of state is
illustrated by a passage from The French Lieutenant’s Woman (Fowles 1969). The woman of
the title is described by another character thus: ‘Poor Tragedy ... It was as if the woman had
become addicted to melancholia as one becomes addicted to opium ... her sadness becomes
her happiness’ (Fowles 1969: 134, 136). Here we see that suffering is double-edged; for this
character it has become a way of living.
This whole novel could be understood as a quest and as ‘soul making’. It is so for the
central character but also, vicariously, for the reader, who identifies with the character of

Schaverien, J. (1999). The revealing image : Analytical art psychotherapy in theory and practice. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Created from ikoninstituteau on 2023-06-19 01:52:23.
 Charles. Although the last thing this novel is about is therapy, it could be understood to be
about transference in the wide sense in which I have been applying the term. The connection
between the characters in this novel ‘means something for the soul’. It is the story of the
obsessional attachment of Charles for Sarah, a mysterious, elusive woman who, although
apparently interested in Charles, consistently evades him. Every time he thinks there is some
connection between them she disappears again; and he becomes tormented by his love for
her. The reader follows the story of his endless search for her. He embarks on this to the
exclusion, in fact the destruction, of all else in his life. The character of Sarah remains an
enigma, but we are led to understand that she may not be as she at first appears. It seems to
be this enigmatic and simultaneously tragic aura which fascinates Charles and draws him to
her. In archetypal terms Sarah could be understood to be the anima figure of Charles. A man
whose life was mapped out in clear and unquestioning terms until he met her, subsequently
he is unable to accept any of it. Sarah is the outcast, and by his association with her Charles
too becomes something of an outcast. The meeting with psyche, in whatever form it presents,
leads to inner changes and these inevitably have consequences in the external world.
Falling in love is an archetypally determined state. A state in which there is a universal
pattern underlying the individual dynamics of any particular pair. Initially when we fall in
love it is with an aspect of the self which is recognised in the other person. Later this
narcissistic projection has to be matched to the reality, and the ideal lover is transformed into
a mortal, and fallible being. It is only if the reality and the projection have enough common
elements that the relationship can be sustained and can deepen and last. Weir Perry (1976)
discusses this in terms of anima and animus projection, as a search for the soul’s opposite in
another. This is the ultimate ‘soul making’ experience and it accounts for the emphasis on the
need for some form of eros to ignite the fire of the transference and countertransference in
psychotherapy. This is irrespective of the gender or the sexual orientation of the pairing,
although at times this will add a dimension to the transference material. In therapy, as in
‘real’ life, this can be a confusing involvement for both people, who are sometimes unable to
distinguish what role each is playing for the other. The impact of such a meeting is illustrated
by the following passage from the novel:

Her weeping she hid, or tried to hide; that is, she did not sink her face in her hands or
Copyright © 1999. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. All rights reserved.

reach for a handkerchief, but sat with her face turned away. The real reason for her
silence did not dawn on Charles at first.
But then some instinct made him stand and take a silent two steps over the turf, so
that he could see the profile of that face. He saw the cheeks were wet, and he felt
unbearably touched; disturbed; beset by a maze of cross-currents and swept hopelessly
away from his safe anchorage of judicial sympathy. He was at one and the same time
Varguennes enjoying her and the man who sprang forward and struck him down; just as
Sarah was to him both an innocent victim and a wild abandoned woman. Deep in himself
he forgave her her unchastity; and glimpsed the dark shadows where he might have
enjoyed it himself.

Schaverien, J. (1999). The revealing image : Analytical art psychotherapy in theory and practice. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
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 (Fowles 1969: 153–4)

Here Charles is identified first with one, and then with another of the characters in the
drama which Sarah recounts. He is at once her seducer and her defender. He sees her too in
different lights; as both innocent victim and wild abandoned woman. It is notable how fluid
is his perception. It could be understood that he is in the grip of an archetype which has
constellated between them. This is intensely fascinating and he is ‘swept hopelessly away
from his safe anchorage’.
This passage in the novel is followed by a discussion of the changes which have taken
place in the century which has passed since the time in which the novel is set. Individuals are
no longer constrained by the social taboos associated with sex, and so today Sarah would not
be an outcast as she was in the story. Thus Fowles assumes there would not be such a ‘shift in
sexual key’ in a present day relationship as there was in the meeting described above. It is the
fact that the meeting is taboo, and so potentially damaging for the reputations of both parties,
which adds to its intensity. It is notable that after the couple make love, which they do on one
occasion, Sarah disappears and Charles is bereft; left forever searching for her.
To continue the analogy between this tale and analysis, in both there is a taboo. The
abstinence rule is a taboo imposed in analysis and at times this effects a similar ‘shift in
sexual key’. We saw at the beginning of this chapter that the rule of abstinence, apart from
protecting patient and therapist, came about because Freud considered that the patient’s
desires should be permitted to persist. Gratification would not lead to insight whereas
abstinence leads to the conversion of desire to psyche. In therapy, or analysis it is the
recognition of the desire which is important, and this leaves the ‘as if’ quality of the
relationship intact. In those cases where the desire has been acted upon, recriminations and
even court cases have ensued. This is because the spell has been broken and the patient
exploited. To act on any aspect of therapy concretises it by destroying the image on which
that particular constellation of the transference lives. It brings the wraith into the real world
of actions, of cause and effect, and in so doing destroys it.
The story could be understood in these terms also. Sarah was, in part, a creation of
Charles’s desire, and he played some less defined part in her world. Both were in thrall to an
archetypal influence, but as soon as they acted upon it the spell was broken and the woman
Copyright © 1999. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. All rights reserved.

disappeared. Now this is fiction and I do not want to draw too many analogies from what is,
after all, only a story; but on the other hand this story seems to offer insights into some of the
ways both patient and therapist may be affected in the transference. Charles, in the passage
quoted above, could be seen as patient or therapist; in either case the same effects might be
operating. The therapist’s role is the one closest to that passage, for although in the story he is
the lover, the woman is certainly rather disturbed and weaves him into her intriguing web.
His response is conditioned by the roles she evokes in him. In the quoted passage, Charles is
profoundly affected by Sarah’s tears; something about her touches him so that he is moved
from his ‘judicious sympathy’. For the therapist the pull of such an appeal is familiar and its
power is strong. This is where the observer part of the therapist is needed to sustain a position

Schaverien, J. (1999). The revealing image : Analytical art psychotherapy in theory and practice. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
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 without being overwhelmed and so drawn into the seduction and fascination of the spell
which such material weaves. The abstinence rule in therapy exists for the dual purpose of
protecting the patient and the therapist, and for bringing to consciousness that which would
otherwise remain unconscious.
In this chapter we have seen that the analytic encounter is tempered with eros, but this is
by no means the only constituent of the transference. Powerful aggressive and destructive
forces emerge too, in archetypal guise. The analyst may at one moment appear to be the
embodiment of the desired anima/animus figure, but at the next she may appear to embody
the terrifying, all-powerful destructive forces of the psyche. To lose sight of one of these
aspects of the psyche and so to act on it is to risk the acting out of its opposite also. As in the
description of Charles’s views of Sarah, the apparent roles in therapy change with speed and
unpredictability. The therapeutic boundaries, and these include the application of theories of
transference and countertransference, exist to make this potentially volatile situation
manageable.
We have also seen that transference and countertransference may be understood to play a
part in art and literature. This has implications for the discussion of the scapegoat
transference, a transference which, I shall argue is particular to analytical art psychotherapy.
Copyright © 1999. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. All rights reserved.

Schaverien, J. (1999). The revealing image : Analytical art psychotherapy in theory and practice. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Created from ikoninstituteau on 2023-06-19 01:52:23.