One of the most valuable tools one has in working with the obsessional is the therapist's own personality, providing one can use this tool skillfully. Each doctor-patient relationship is unique and will bring with it its own unique counter-transference problems. Common problems of which we are consciously aware include boredom, escape into fantasy, impatience, argumentative behaviour, dislike and feeling of inadequacy. Hopefully we can utilize these feelings to further our understanding of the patient's dilemma. One problem we should be alert to is our unconscious sadism which may find expression in the nature of our interpretive behaviour.
References
1.
HorneyKaren: Neurosis and Human Growth.New York: W.W. Norton, pp. 333–365, 1950.
2.
OffenkrantzWilliam, TobinArnold: Psychoanalytic psychotherapy.Arch Gen Psychiatry30: May, 601, 1974.
3.
SalzmanLeon: The Obsessive Personality.New York: W.W. Norton, 1950.
