Special case transferences and countertransferences in the treatment of dissociative disorders

p. 255-265While transference paradigms tend to be unique to each patient's situation, there are repetitive themes in the treatment of survivors of severe abuse which manifest themselves relentlessly. These over-arching exemplars describe the erotic and traumatic nature of abusive experiences. A thorough understanding of these situations is necessary to facilitate a positive outcome in the treatment of persons with dissociative disorders. Non-dynamic approaches to psychotherapy may be especially vulnerable to mistakes and missteps when erotic and traumatic transference themes are robustly present. The vicissitudes of the erotic and traumatic transferences are explored from a psychoanalytic perspective and a vignette is provided for explication of the theoretical material presented