COUNTERTRANSFERENCE AS A FACTOR IN THE DELINQUENT'S RESISTANCE TO PSYCHOTHERAPY

Abstract

Much of the literature dealing with the treatment of the adolescent delinquent is concerned with his unsuitability for psychotherapy from the point of view of the patient's pathology. He is seen as an individual with a narcissistic fixation and a need to exploit any situation,' without functioning superego, ability to empathize or capacity to form a positive transference, and without ability to observe himself3-in short, as predominantly psychopathic. Except for Thorpe and Smith's description of signs of anxiety occurring in themselves while treating juvenile delinquents, little has been written about the difficulties in doing therapy with these adolescents from the point of view of the therapist's own reactions. While we agree that the delinquent's types of pathology per se represent great problems in treatment, we suspect that a large portion of the. overall difficulty in treating delinquents can be found in the ability of these boys to stimulate intense and extensive countertransference reactions in the therapists who attempt to treat them and in the countertransference reactions stemming from the social climate in which the therapist works.