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A myth of the analytic situation is the analyst without anxiety and without anger which, according to Racker, corresponds to the ideals typical of the obsessional neurosis which could lead to mental block and repression. In contrast, true objectivity means that the analyst includes his own subjectivity or counter-transference as constant objects of observation and analysis. Racker describes the concordant identifications of the analyst with the analysand: his Id with the analysand’s Id, his Ego with that of the analysand, and the same case with the superego. However, he distinguishes these from complementary identifications that are connected to the analysand’s objects. For instance, the analyst’s disposition towards empathy, which in turn is originated in sublimated counter-transference, allows concordant identifications. When these are rejected the complementary identifications are the ones that prevail. In order to detect these identifications, Racker stresses the importance of counter- transference experiences involved in the counter-transference ideas and position. Counter- transference ideas emerge from the particular resonance that takes place in the analyst due to the correspondence with the psychological constellation of the analysand. Counter-transference ideas appear thanks to the evenly suspended attention suggested by Freud and pose no danger to objectivity unless they are disregarded. In contrast, it is the unacknowledged counter-transference positions (for example, the analyst’s anger at the analysand’s frustrating behaviour) the ones that do have consequences. He also describes para-countertransference phenomena, which are connected to the transferences generated by the analysand during treatment with people close to him or her. In the same way, in the analysand transferences about people, places, institutions connected with his analyst also emerge (para-transference). Racker also establishes a distinction between counter-transference anxiety of a depressive nature, which in general corresponds to a masochistic defence in the patient which induces in the analyst a tendency to repair and to experience his patient as if he were damaged, from the paranoid anxiety (the analyst is frightened of being attacked or damaged by the patient). There is correspondence between the analyst’s paranoid anxiety and the patient’s identification with persecuting objects, from which the patient tries to protect himself by harassing the analyst. It is in these cases that the analyst experiences paranoid anxiety. Racker says that little is written or said about this subject and claims that speaking about this appears to embarrass the analysts. The cause of this is to be found in what constitutes the basis of counter-transference: the infantile experiences that have been awakened by the analytic task. Racker’s ideas, in particular the concepts of counter-transference and that of the analyst trained in self-observation have had influence in the training of several analysts, not only in Argentina, but also throughout Latin America.
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