What is to give light must endure burning..
Viktor Frankl.
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to analyze countertransference experienced by a therapist while treating a ‘difficult to treat’ adolescent client. In doing so, the therapist discusses how his childhood experiences and the subsequent assumption of Carl Jung’s wounded healer archetype fueled the countertransference in ways that were concurrently beneficial and detrimental to treatment. The client’s symptoms, behavior, and family system are also examined to illustrate how they uniquely contributed to the intense feelings evoked in the therapist. Topics of omnipotence, curative fantasies, biblical myth, and childhood trauma are explored throughout this paper, as they uniquely intersected to create a complex web of psychodynamics between therapist and client. This is demonstrated primarily through an interpretation of the client’s final session and the therapist’s dream following treatment. The therapist shares reflections of the treatment, implications for wounded healer self-disclosure, as well as the archetype’s importance to the social work profession.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Appelbaum, J. (2012). Father and son: Freud revisits his oedipus complex in moses and monotheism. The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 72, 166–184.
Beck, A. T. (1967). Depression: Clinical, experimental, and theoretical aspects. New York: Harper & Row.
Bloomgarden, A., & Mennuti, R. B. (2009). Lessons learned from adolescent girls. In A. Bloomgarden & R. B. Mennuti (Eds.), Psychotherapist revealed: Therapists speak about self-disclosure in psychotherapy (pp. 101–114). New York: Routledge.
Bollas, C. (1990). Regression in the countertransference. In L. B. Boyer & P. L. Giovacchini (Eds.), Master clinicians on treating the regressed patient (pp. 339–352). Northvale: Jason Aronson.
Briere, J. (1992). Child abuse trauma: Theory and treatment of the lasting effects. Newbury Park: Sage.
Burton, A. and associates (Ed.). (1972). Twelve therapists: How they live and actualize themselves. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Chaudoir, S. R., & Fisher, J. D. (2010). The disclosure processes model: Understanding disclosure decision-making and post-disclosure outcomes among people living with a concealable stigmatized identity. Psychological Bulletin, 136, 236–256.
Chu, J. A. (1998). Rebuilding shattered lives: The responsible treatment of complex post-traumatic and dissociative disorders. New York: Wiley.
Ferenczi, S. (1923). ‘The dream of the clever [wise] baby’. In Further Contributions to Psycho-Analysis. Compiled by J. Rickman, (trans: Suttie, J. et al.). London: Hogarth Press, 1926 (2nd edn, 1950). Reprinted London: Karnac Books, 1980. pp. 349–50.
Ford, E. S. C. (1963). Being and becoming a psychotherapist: The search for identity. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 17, 474–482.
Fortune, C. (1993). ‘The case of R. N.: Sandor Ferenczi’s radical experiment in psycho-analysis’. In L. Aron & A. Harris (Eds.), The legacy of Sandor Ferenczi. Hillsdale: The Analytic Press.
Frankl, V. (1959). Man’s search for meaning. Boston: Beacon Press.
Freud, S. (1939). Moses and monotheism. Standard Edition (Vol. 23, pp. 1–138). London: Hogarth.
Gabbard, G. O. (1993). An overview of countertransference with borderline patients. Journal of Psychotherapy, Practice and Research, 2(1), 7–18.
Gelso, C. J., & Hayes, J. A. (2007). Countertransference and the therapist’s inner experience: Perils and possibilities. Mahwah: Erlbaum.
Gilroy, P. J., Carroll, L., & Murra, J. (2001). Does depression affect clinical practice? A survey of women psychotherapists. Women and Therapy, 23, 13–30.
Goldberg, A. (2012). The analysis of failure: An investigation of failed cases in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. New York: Routledge.
Groesbeck, C. J. (1975). The archetypal image of the wounded healer. Journal of Analytic Psychology, 20, 122–145.
Havsteen-Franklin, D. (2007). Differentiating the ego-personality and internal other in art psychotherapy with patients with borderline personality disorder. Psychodynamic Practice, 13(1), 59–83.
Jackson, S. W. (2001). The wounded healer. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 75, 1–36.
Jones, N. (2013). Externalizing injustice: Madness is never here. Retrieved from http://phenomologyofmadness.files.wordpress.com/%202013/01/fpa.docx.
Jung, C., & Kerenyi, C. (1951). Introduction to a science of mythology: The myth of the divine child and the mysteries of Eleusis. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Kerenyi, C. (1959). Asklepios: Archetypal image of the physician’s existence. Archetypal images in greek religion bollingen series (Vol. 65, No. 3). New York: Pantheon Books.
Kirmayer, L. (2003). Asklepian dreams: The ethos of the wounded-healer in the clinical encounter. Transcultural Psychiatry, 40, 248–277.
Kron, T., & Avny, N. (2003). Psychotherapists’ dreams about their patients. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 48, 317–339.
Maltsberger, J. T., & Buie, D. H. (1974). Countertransference hate in the treatment of suicidal patients. Archives of General Psychiatry, 30, 625–633.
Natterson, J. (1991). Beyond countertransference: The therapist’s subjectivity in the therapeutic process. Northvale: Jason Aronson.
Norcross, J. C., & Guy, J. D. (2007). Leaving it in the office. A guide to psychotherapist self-care. New York: The Guilford Press.
Ornstein, A. (1995). The fate of the curative fantasy in the psychoanalytic treatment process. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 31, 113–123.
Racusin, G. R., Abramowitz, S. I., & Winter, W. D. (1981). Becoming a therapist: Family dynamics and career choice. Professional Psychology, 12, 271–279.
Russell, A. T., Pasnau, R. O., Zebulon, C., & Taintor, Z. C. (1975). Emotional problems of residents in psychiatry. American Psychiatry, 132, 263–267.
Salinger, J. D. (1951). The catcher in the rye. New York: Little Brown and Company.
Schaffer, A. (2006). The analyst’s curative fantasies. Implications for supervision and self-supervision. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 42(3), 349–366.
Sherman, M. D. (1996). Distress and professional impairment due to mental health problems among psychotherapists. Clinical Psychology Review, 16, 299–315.
Sussman, M. B. (2007). A curious calling: Unconscious motivations for practicing psychotherapy. New York: Jason Aronson.
Whitman, R. M., Kramer, M., & Baldridge, B. J. (1969). Dreams about the patient. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 17(3), 702–727.
Winnicott, D. W. (1984 [1947]). Hate in the countertransference. In through paediatrics to psychoanalysis. London: Karnac Books.
Zerubavel, N., & Wright, M. O. (2012). The dilemma of the wounded healer. Psychotherapy, 49(4), 482–491.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cuseglio, R. After the Flood: Reflections of a Wounded Healer’s Countertransference in Adolescent Treatment. Clin Soc Work J 49, 35–44 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-019-00716-0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-019-00716-0