Working with the difficult super-ego: Readings in Harold Searles

One of the problems all therapists continually face in their work is the punishing and overly critical superego, both in our patients and in ourselves. However much we work to create an atmosphere of openness and acceptance, we find our patients so often hostile and self hating toward many aspects of themselves. Frequently this self hatred in our patients is mirrored in our own attitude toward our work, chronically struggling with feelings of failure and inadequacy. Harold Searles was an American psychoanalyst who pioneered in developing ideas about how therapists can use their countertransference, particularly their feelings of aggression and guilt, constructively in the therapy work. We will read two of Searles’ articles as background to exploring our own clinical experiences in this area.