Love and Hate in the Analytic Setting

Passionate feelings of love and hate are stirred in psychotherapy. Paradoxically, these passions may either undermine the therapist catastrophically or serve as the crucible in which profound understanding is forged.

Transferences and countertransferences of love and hate occur on a spectrum that includes unobjectionable negative and positive feelings, relatively benign forms of love and hate, and more malignant, intractable versions of love and hate that present formidable challenges to the therapist. Each of these variations is explored in different chapters of this book. Gender configurations, gender fluidity, adolescent transferences, the link between love and lust, and passive forms of hating are among the topics discussed.

Most of all, the author, noted psychoanalyst Glen Gabbard, depicts what it is like to be in the eye of the hurricane when passions are aroused. He provides a practical yet theoretically sophisticated guide to the management of love and hate as they are experienced by both patient and therapist.