Regression in countertransference

The author describes his experiences of being profoundly non-existent or non-functioning in relation to five analytic patients. He refers to Winnicott’s proposition that a baby depends for its existence on the presence of a mother, and suggests that this statement might be inverted to say that a mother’s experience of her maternal identity depends upon her relationship with her baby. He suggests that the experiences he describes of the analyst’s non-existence might be understood as counter-transference clues to the nature and depth of the patient’s regression within the transference.