Desire and the Female Therapist: Engendered Gazes in Psychotherapy and Art Therapy

Desire and the Female Therapist is an exploration of desire in the transference and countertransference in clinical practice, particularly the erotic transference experienced between the female therapist and the male client. While this transference is frequently understood as a maternal response to the infantile origins of the transference, author Joy Schaverien acknowledges that adult sexual feelings are often central in the dynamic as well. If these feelings are left unacknowledged, there is potential for unconscious acting out and resulting sexual abuse.

The countertransference effects of the meeting of gazes of artist/picture/therapist are investigated, drawing on psychoanalytic and aesthetic theory, particularly Lacan, Winnicott and Jung. This leads to a significant new approach to pictures in therapy through the development of the "aesthetic countertransference." Richly illustrated with pictures, as well as clinical vignettes, Desire and the Female Therapist follows on from Schaverien's innovative book The Revealing Image. It connects psychotherapy and art therapy theory and offers a new contribution to both.