Transference

Transference
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Transference is a phenomenon in psychology characterized by unconscious redirection of feelings of one person to another. For instance, one could mistrust somebody who resembles an ex-spouse in manners, voice or external appearance; or be overly compliant to someone who resembles a childhood friend.

In a therapy context, transference refers to redirection of a client’s feelings from a significant person to a therapist. Counter-transference is defined as redirection of a therapist’s feelings toward a client, or more generally as a therapist’s emotional entanglement with a client.

Transference was first described by Freud, who acknowledged its importance for psychoanalysis for better understanding of the patient’s feelings. Transference is often manifested as an erotic attraction towards or by a therapist. It’s also common for people to transfer feelings from their parents to their partners (emotional incest) or to children (cross-generational entanglements).

Although transference is often characterized as a useful tool for building trust between a client and a therapist; transference can also interfere with a therapist’s ability to help a client. Some therapists become confused between clients and intimate partners.

In The Psychology of the Transference, Carl Jung states that within the transference dyad both participants typically experience a variety of opposites, and that in love and in psychological growth, the key to success is the ability to endure the tension of the opposites without abandoning the process; and that in essence it is that tension that allows one to grow and to transform.

Transference is common. Only in a personally or socially harmful context can transference be described as a pathological issue.