목회상담에서의 ‘성숙한 역전이’: 구원환상에 대한 상호주관적 이해의 재고

Abstract

This study reconsiders how countertransference functions therapeutically, rather than dysfunctionally, in the process of pastoral counseling. In classical psychoanalysis, countertransference has been considered a potential danger that needs to be censored and restrained in the course of therapy. However, recently in therapeutic practices such as the intersubjective approach to psychotherapy, countertransference is being considered an inevitable process that is necessary to deeply understand the patient. On the basis of these new approaches, Jeong Eun Jang argues that pastoral counselor’s “rescue fantasy” can be therapeutic provided that it can be interpreted and verbalized in the course of pastoral counseling. In this study, I further argue that pastoral counselor’s countertransference can be a therapeutic process not only because it is verbalized but also because it can be a mature therapeutic response, as can be seen in Wilfred Bion’s concept of containing and Heinz Kohut’s empathy. Counselors’ countertransference can be a mature therapeutic response in case they have developed a mature narcissistic self through what Kohut calls “transmuting internalization.” That is, counselors’ countertransference can be therapeutic provided that they have developed an inner ability to endure the negative emotions projected upon self and sustain their mature self. Especially in the course of pastoral counseling, pastoral counselors can function in this mature way on the basis of what Bion calls “faith.” According to Bion, faith is a capacity to hope for the absent object in the face of frustration and anxiety; for pastoral counselors, this is the ability to see the God who is present between them and their counselees. The counselees can also endure inner negative feelings and hope for the God who is present by reinternalizing the pastoral counselors’ faith and capacity to contain the projected feelings of anger and anxiety.