Countertransference as a factor in premature termination of apparently successful cases

In brief sex therapy rapid disappearance of symptoms may appear to signal success. However, superficial indications of success may be utilized by the sex therapist as an opportunity to escape from a therapeutic situation which evokes uncomfortable feelings. The need to terminate treatment abruptly may be conscious or unconscious. This presenration discusses a few of the multiple factors which may lead the therapist to initiate premature termination or to collude with the patients' wish to avoid painful discoveries. Emphasis is placed upon the therapist's problems rather than the patients' to alert clinicians to the adverse effects of countertransference.