Rational and irrational aspects of countertransference.

Countertransference in therapy stems from biological tendencies and social learning influences that involve mild or heavy prejudiced thinking, feeling, and behaving. Several reasons are given why it is almost inevitable and has both beneficial and destructive aspects-not either/or but both/and. It is hypothesized that therapists can well make good use of countertransference if they strive to employ it in a preferential, experimental rather than an absolutist musturbating manner.