Deepening Intimacy in Psychotherapy
Introduction: Deepening Intimacy in Psychotherapy: Using the Erotic Transference and Countertransference was published by Aronson publishers in 2001.
“I have never considered myself a writer. My colleagues say I must update this attitude since having written a book typically means a person… [is] a writer. Instead, I think of myself as a good storyteller, a recorder of other people’s narratives that create form and fantasy in my mind. This book is a collection of stories of clinical experiences with patients who have developed an erotic transference and about a therapist who struggled with erotic countertransference issues in response.
[My] book is not a prescriptive text on treating individuals who are subject to erotic transference developments, although some readers may perceive it that way… [But] rather this is a clinical account of relational strife around sexuality [that sometimes develops in psychotherapy].”
— “Introduction.” In: Deepening Intimacy in Psychotherapy: Using the Erotic Transference and Countertransference. Page xi. (Jason Aronson, Publishers, 2000)
Praise for Deepening Intimacy in Psychotherapy: Using the Erotic Transference and Countertransference
"Today’s psychotherapist is faced with the important challenge of making use of his or her individual voice and temperament. Florence Rosiello takes up this challenge where others might avoid it, in the difficult arena of the erotic transference and countertransference experience. Dr. Rosiello uses creativity laced with humor to demonstrate how her unique point of view can be used in this context to deepen the relationship between therapist and patient."
"Dr. Florence Rosiello has written an important, pioneering book. It is composed of a collection of clinical experiences with patients who have developed erotic transferences. These experiences reflect a wide range in gender and sexual orientation configuration of patient and therapist. As Dr. Rosiello points out, the important area of erotic transference and countertransference has, for the most part, been neglected in the clinical literature. She describes those erotic narratives with courage and sophistication. It is clear that the expression of loving and sexual feelings in the transference involves emotional risk-taking on the part of the therapist. In these beautifully and sensitively written vignettes, Dr. Rosiello demonstrates that working with the erotic transference creates the basis for a very special emotional intimacy in the therapeutic relationship. This volume is highly recommended to clinicians at all levels of experience."
"Dr. Rosiello has performed the enormous service of taking the erotic transference and countertransference out of the therapeutic closet. In this scholarly and incisive account of the psychoanalytic view of the erotic transference, she courageously ventures into territory that has tended to be off limits. With rich illustrations, she vividly shows how both same- and different-gender patients and therapists struggle to make sense of and deal with their erotic feelings in treatment. She makes a major contribution to our understanding of the ways in which therapists need to participate with patients during psychotherapy."