Coasting in the Countertransference Psychoanalysis in a New Key Book Series Volume 7 RT20608.indb 1 1/10/08 11:06:18 AM Psychoanalysis in a New Key Book Series DONNEL STERN, PH.D., SERIES EDITOR Volume 1 Clinical Values: Emotions That Guide Psychoanalytic Treatment Sandra Buechler Volume 2 What Do Mothers Want? Contemporary Perspectives in Psychoanalysis and Related Disciplines Sheila Brown Volume 3 The Fallacy of Understanding / The Ambiguity of Change Edgar A. Levenson Volume 4 Prelogical Experience: An Inquiry into Dreams & Other Creative Processes Edward S. Tauber and Maurice R. Green Volume 5 Prologue to Violence: Child Abuse, Dissociation, and Crime Abby Stein Volume 6 Wounded by Reality: Understanding and Treating Adult Onset Trauma Ghislaine Boulanger Volume 7 Coasting in the Countertransference: Conflicts of Self Interest between Analyst and Patient Irwin Hirsch RT20608.indb 2 1/10/08 11:06:19 AM Coasting in the Countertransference Conflicts of Self Interest between Analyst and Patient Irwin Hirsch RT20608.indb 3 1/10/08 11:06:19 AM Cover: © David Newman, Countertransference Collage #3, 1998. 14” x 17”, cut paper collage. The Analytic Press The Analytic Press Taylor & Francis Group Taylor & Francis Group 270 Madison Avenue 27 Church Road New York, NY 10016 Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FA © 2008 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-88163-480-8 (Softcover) 978-0-88163-455-6 (0) Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Law, no part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, trans- mitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at http://www.taylorandfrancis.com and The Analytic Press Web site at http://www.analyticpress.com RT20608.indb 4 1/10/08 11:06:19 AM In memory of my parents; for my wife—my love and my life partner; and to my children and their children, present and future—my joy and my inspiration. RT20608.indb 5 1/10/08 11:06:19 AM RT20608.indb 6 1/10/08 11:06:19 AM Contents Acknowledgments ix Foreword xiii 1 Coasting in the Countertransference: Analysts’ Pursuit of Self-Interest 1 2 The Influence of Situational Factors, in Analysts’ Lives and Analysts’ Preferred Relational States, on Analytic Participation 27 3 Analysts’ Character Structure and the Wish for Emotional Equilibrium 53 4 Preferred Patients, Preferred Relational Configurations 81 5 Psychoanalytic Theory and Its Unexamined Comforts 109 6 Baldness 133 7 Money and the Therapeutic Frame 155 8 Money and the Ongoing Therapeutic Relationship 177 References 201 Index 217 vii RT20608.indb 7 1/10/08 11:06:20 AM RT20608.indb 8 1/10/08 11:06:20 AM Acknowledgments My parents, people of great integrity, uneducated and unworldly, always made me feel loved and were proud of anything I did (or did not do). I had lots of latitude and little expectancy or judgment from them, and from preadolescence onward I always felt the freedom to do as I wished. From this period forward, I had the good fortune to develop what became enduring friendships, and these boys/men, originally in the beloved Brooklyn of my youth, both broadened my horizons and challenged me to be as smart and accomplished as they were. With the generous help of the City College of New York’s tuition-free education policy, I encountered some inspiring teachers and interesting new friends of both sexes, and I became both more intellectually alive and more ambitious. I disliked the behaviorally oriented (Skinnerian) graduate school that accepted me, but I was lucky to find some excellent psychoanalytically oriented colleagues and mentors in the Veterans Administration’s psychology trainee program. I also had a very kind and supportive dissertation supervi- sor to help lead me through this alien graduate program. Once back in New York City my route to psychoanalysis began in earnest, first as a postdoctoral fellow at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and then at New York University’s Postdoctoral Pro- gram in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. My teachers and super- visors in both these venues were, by and large, outstanding. My personal analysis was both illuminating and most helpful. As well, I learned an enormous amount from my peers at these two institu- tions, and to this day I deeply value these connections. During this period I was first exposed to analytic thinking and writing that had strong resonance, that excited me, and that ultimately inspired me to begin writing myself. Prominent among these influential authors are Harold Searles, Edgar Levenson, and, somewhat later, Merton Gill. The psychoanalytic supervisors whose clinical thinking had the ix RT20608.indb 9 1/10/08 11:06:20 AM