Propriety of the Erich Fromm Document Center. For personal use only. Citation or publication of material prohibited without express written permission of the copyright holder. Eigentum des Erich Fromm Dokumentationszentrums. Nutzung nur für persönliche Zwecke. Veröf- fentlichungen – auch von Teilen – bedürfen der schriftlichen Erlaubnis des Rechteinhabers. Psychoanalyst’s Values and Countertransference Romano Biancoli Paper presented at the XI International Forum of the IFPS to commemorate the 100th birthday of Erich Fromm which took place in May 2000 in New York. First published in: International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Oslo (Scandinavian University Press) Vol. 11 (No. 1, March 2002), pp. 10-17. Reprint in: Fromm Forum (English edition), Tübingen (Selbstverlag), No. 6 (2002), pp. 9-14. Copyright © 2002 and 2009 by Taylor and Francis. - Copyright © 2011 by the Estate of Romano Biancoli, Via Antonio Codronchi, 110, I-48100 Ravenna tionalizations which conceal underlying uncon- „I pray God that he may rid me of God“ scious beliefs. (Meister Eckhart) Radical Humanism: Introduction Real Values and Illusory Values Countertransference, though only since the late Values and theories are very closely related. 40’s, is one of the most tormented concepts in Values require that theories be developed co- the history of psychoanalysis because it directly herently, and theories take on values in their concerns the analyst’s ability to analyze. The lit- premises, sometimes only in implicit ways. Radi- erature on the subject demonstrates that coun- cal humanism’s value orientation is to see the tertransference is defined differently by different root of everything in man. It sets out from the authors since in this field, perhaps more than in presupposition that human nature exists as a others, „analysts of different persuasions use the characteristic of the human species, common to same words to convey widely different mean- all human beings, who not only have a similar ings“ (1:281). But analysts’ values and philoso- anatomy and physiology but also the same psy- phical and scientific convictions carry even more chic structure. This makes the human race a weight than differences in language with regard unity and explains the comprehensibility of even to countertransference concepts and the analytic the most distant cultures, their art, their myths, relationship. My main assumption is that the their dramas (2:55). It is a theoretic vision which technique adopted by psychoanalysts derives finds its clinical application mainly in the „cen- from their values and the general theory of hu- ter-to-center“ correlation between analyst and man beings to which, consciously or uncon- patient (3,4): the analyst can understand the pa- sciously, they subscribe. tient to the extent that he himself experiences My standpoint comes from Erich Fromm’s what the patient experiences, in accordance conception of radical humanism and its conse- with Terence’s maxim: Nihil humani a me quences on the plane of analytic technique. alienum puto (Nothing human is alien to me) Humanistic and non-humanistic values, real val- (5:52). Every individual, as a member of the ues and illusory values, are interwoven in the human race, is potentially capable of experienc- analytic work, above all in its unconscious as- ing every human experience. pects. So the analyst must be aware not only of Many humanistic principles are fundamental the clinical consequences of his conscious beliefs to the constitutions of western nations and are but also of the possible operation therein of ra- Seite 1 von 8 Biancoli, R., 2002a Psychoanalyst’s Values and Countertransference Propriety of the Erich Fromm Document Center. For personal use only. Citation or publication of material prohibited without express written permission of the copyright holder. Eigentum des Erich Fromm Dokumentationszentrums. Nutzung nur für persönliche Zwecke. Veröf- fentlichungen – auch von Teilen – bedürfen der schriftlichen Erlaubnis des Rechteinhabers. furthermore put forward by the most important the functioning requirements of society and its and widespread religions. Schoolteachers teach economy. They act in a diffuse manner and human values to children and adolescents. But press powerfully on the mind without the per- the fact is that in our societies different values son being aware of them. prevail, based on money, power and success, Psychoanalysis may bring to light even the which are at the base of the economic function- subtlest infiltrations of non-humanistic values ing. „Social character“ orientations (6) are influ- into the mind, and this is part of the analyst’s enced by these powerful non- humanistic situa- formative training. But even in a well analyzed tions which tend to become the actual values, mind we may say that there is sadistic-moral, while the great ideal principles either remain il- sadistic-anal and narcissistic content linked to lusory values (7:325-29) or are even openly power, money and success which is very difficult disparaged. These two series of values, humanis- to eradicate. We are dealing with content that tic and non humanistic, are in themselves con- enters actively into countertransference. scious, but the rationalizations which make illu- sory values pass for real values are unconscious, as are the consequences of these mechanisms in The „Idologic“ View of Transference the individual psyche. and Countertransference The most widespread character orientation in western society today is the „marketing“ one. The idol concept comes from the fact that hu- To understand its essence we may refer to man beings transfer their faculties and strengths Marx’s distinction between the „use value“ and to external figures, real or imaginary. We are „exchange value“ of goods. The former is given dealing with human constructions, material or by the concrete utility of the item, the latter by mental, to which individuals unconsciously at- its price. The „personality market“ turns people tribute parts of themselves and then subjugate into goods in the sense that it splits off their ex- themselves to their own projections. The idol change value (image, professional skill, ability to functions as an alienated and illusory manifesta- adapt) from their use value which is given by tion of human powers. non-commercial qualities: tenderness, love of Fromm puts the question of whether trans- justice, love of truth, love of freedom, capacity ference is only a repetition of infantile experi- to love, willingness to share what they have ences or also of „mobilization of the ‘idolatric etc., qualities which the labor market either ig- passion’” (8:45). He points out (8) that his ideas nores or does not welcome. One loses the ex- should be understood as an extension of perience of one’s own identity. „I am as you de- Freud’s, without polemical intent. Faced with sire me“. The emptiness inside is functional to the difficulties along the road towards individua- rapid and offhand role changes (6:46-7). The tion, the human being may feel himself pushed „separation from reason and heart is almost in a regressive direction by the yearning for an complete“. Furthermore, the growing develop- omnipotent figure he can trust and subject him- ment of technologies, especially in the computer self to. The transference phenomenon reveals field, encourages an unconscious and idolatric the type of survival strategy a person adopts „cybernetic religion“. „Cybernetic man“ thinks and the type of idol he turns to. Analyzing the but does not feel. Intellect is increasingly dissoci- transference of that person is like observing his ated from feelings and emotions. People believe relationship with the world through a micro- they are feeling whereas they are in fact thinking scope (9). In Fromm there is a value judgment about a feeling, they believe they are moved on the transference phenomenon inasmuch as whereas they are in fact thinking of an emotion. he considers (8) the need for idols pathological. The ability to feel becomes an illusory value, Kohut expresses quite a different opinion, ac- while the modern gods of detachment and cal- cording to which the need for relationships with culation are real values. „selfobjects“ may be healthy (10). In the „marketing“ character orientation, The analytical index of Fromm’s complete splitting mechanisms operate which are due to works, edited by R. Funk, contains no reference Seite 2 von 8 Biancoli, R., 2002a Psychoanalyst’s Values and Countertransference Propriety of the Erich Fromm Document Center. For personal use only. Citation or publication of material prohibited without express written permission of the copyright holder. Eigentum des Erich Fromm Dokumentationszentrums. Nutzung nur für persönliche Zwecke. Veröf- fentlichungen – auch von Teilen – bedürfen der schriftlichen Erlaubnis des Rechteinhabers. to „countertransference“. This is a significant fact ence is seen in the classic manner of the first ana- with an implicit value judgment. If by counter- lysts (16,17) as an intrusion into analysis of non- transference we mean the analyst’s transference analyzed residues of the psychoanalyst’s own to the person being analyzed, we may believe pathology. There was a strong reaction against that for Fromm this too is due to „idolatric pas- this conception of countertransference and in sions“ (11). At the long clinical seminar held in favor of its creative and therapeutic use in analy- Mexico City in 1968, Fromm in fact affirmed sis, starting with Paula Heimann’s (18) famous that countertransference is a „counterattitude“. I 1950 article „On Countertransference“ in which link this at once with the phrase „blind spot“ however the proposals for clinical use of coun- used by Freud (12:329). tertransference set out from her much broader concept. „... every unresolved repression in the phy- My interpretation of Fromm proposes, on sician constitutes what W. Stekel has well the theoretical plane, breaking down the ana- named a ‘blind spot’ in his capacity for ana- lyst’s global reaction into two components lytic perception“. But a few lines earlier which in fact, in experience, tend to overlap and Freud says: „..