All analysis is inevitably pierced by the countertransference. This phenomenon is one of the key issues of psychoanalytic's theory and technique as it affects the analyst in his daily clinical and refers to his personal analysis, clinical supervision and writing, because of the anguish relative to the transference's disturbing strangeness. Denoted its importance in this text, we will investigate the construction of its concept in Sigmund Freud as a experience necessary, but also as a problem to be solved, in Sándor Ferenczi's work, when approaching the countertransference as an inherent part of the transference relationship and the analytical technique. We will also demonstrate its subsequent comprehension by Paula Heimann in 1950, who made a major shift at the understanding of the term as an essential tool for analytical method.
countertransference; Freud; Ferenczi; Heimann