Introduction. Very few studies investigated countertransference in psycho-oncological settings and mainly about single case studies reporting emotional responses of therapists. Nevertheless, researches in clinical and psychodynamic psychology field stress the importance of studying countertransference, as well as countertransference dreams, to understand the therapeutic relationship and the patient’s experience of suffering. The present work aims to discuss results of a qualitative study on narratives about dreams of countertransference in Italian psycho-therapists facing the relationship with patients suffering from an oncological disease. Methods. 32 Italian psychotherapists of different approach took part in the present study and narrated their countertransference dreams in relation to the therapeutic relationship with a patient suffering from a tumor. Narratives were collected anonymously and analysed by means of an inductive-data driven thematic analysis as theorized by Braun and Clarke. Results. Four main themes emerged from thematic analysis: the theme “crossing the setting boundaries”, saturating the 67% of collected narratives and defining the presence in dreams of experience of meeting and supporting the patient in their daily life and out of the clinical setting, “feeding the suffering body and the relationship”, referring to dreams about experiences of eating with the patient enjoying the feeding experience and saturating the 23% of narratives, “touching the patient” (54%), in which participants narrated the attempt to feel themselves close to a patient touching and embracing them, and “anguish due to contagion” (18%), referring to psychotherapists’ fear of being sick or being infected by the disease and the treatments symptoms. In the 58% of narratives two of more themes were co-present. No differences in themes occurrence were found considering participants’ age, length of service or gender. Discussion. The author discusses results considering psycho-dynamic literature about countertransference and evidence on meanings related to the oncological illness experience and psycho-somatic issues. Future directions of the study and ongoing studies are also reported.
Countertransference dreams about patients suffering from oncological diseases
Fioretti Chiara
2023-01-01
Abstract
Introduction. Very few studies investigated countertransference in psycho-oncological settings and mainly about single case studies reporting emotional responses of therapists. Nevertheless, researches in clinical and psychodynamic psychology field stress the importance of studying countertransference, as well as countertransference dreams, to understand the therapeutic relationship and the patient’s experience of suffering. The present work aims to discuss results of a qualitative study on narratives about dreams of countertransference in Italian psycho-therapists facing the relationship with patients suffering from an oncological disease. Methods. 32 Italian psychotherapists of different approach took part in the present study and narrated their countertransference dreams in relation to the therapeutic relationship with a patient suffering from a tumor. Narratives were collected anonymously and analysed by means of an inductive-data driven thematic analysis as theorized by Braun and Clarke. Results. Four main themes emerged from thematic analysis: the theme “crossing the setting boundaries”, saturating the 67% of collected narratives and defining the presence in dreams of experience of meeting and supporting the patient in their daily life and out of the clinical setting, “feeding the suffering body and the relationship”, referring to dreams about experiences of eating with the patient enjoying the feeding experience and saturating the 23% of narratives, “touching the patient” (54%), in which participants narrated the attempt to feel themselves close to a patient touching and embracing them, and “anguish due to contagion” (18%), referring to psychotherapists’ fear of being sick or being infected by the disease and the treatments symptoms. In the 58% of narratives two of more themes were co-present. No differences in themes occurrence were found considering participants’ age, length of service or gender. Discussion. The author discusses results considering psycho-dynamic literature about countertransference and evidence on meanings related to the oncological illness experience and psycho-somatic issues. Future directions of the study and ongoing studies are also reported.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
