Transference and Countertransference to Medication and its Implications for Ego Function
- 1 June 2007
- journal article
- Published by Guilford Publications in The Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry
- Vol. 35 (2), 211-218
- https://doi.org/10.1521/jaap.2007.35.2.211
Abstract
Transference to medication can provide important information about specific ego dysfunction in sicker patients who often need medication. Whether positive or negative or both in content, the organization of the experience provides one example of the illness' effect on the patients' ego and can therefore be a specific diagnostic assessment strategy. Early resistances to medication may reveal the nature of resistances to the therapeutic alliance and to higher-level ego function. Understanding this can guide verbal and pharmacological interventions to strengthen ego function. Countertransference can similarly be helpful because it, too, can be a highly specific diagnostic indicator.Keywords
This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit:
- Medication as ObjectJournal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 2006