Transference is a phenomenon whereby one projects feelings or desires one has for an important figure in one's life - such as a parent - onto another person. In the context of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy, transference is said to occur when a patient manifests feelings felt in the past for someone else to the therapist.
Psychotherapy is a psychological practice that aims to treat the disorders presented by the patient and help him or her embark on a path of change that can improve their quality of life.
It is a path in which it is necessary to address aspects of one's life history and family background and link them to one's condition of psychic suffering in the here and now of everyday life.
Psychological paths such as psychotherapy or analysis involve emotions, feelings and emotional-relational dynamics that are triggered between patient and therapist.
One of these dynamics plays a fundamental role in the course of treatment and is called transference.
What is transference?
But what is transference? Transference consists of that set of emotions and feelings that the patient develops towards the psychologist in the course of treatment. It is important to bear in mind that the feelings the patient has towards the therapist are not random and do not depend on the type of psychologist one is dealing with.
If the therapy is conducted correctly, with respect for neutrality (i.e. without the psychotherapist giving personal information about themselves, without advice being given, and without creating a relationship of friendship and confidentiality), the patient will always produce the same kind of transference.
But why does this happen?
Because in transference there is a displacement, onto the psychotherapist, of the patient's unconscious representations and relational models developed with other reference figures (mother, father, significant others, etc.).
Transference can be considered a psychological process that moves in two directions: on the one hand, past experiences with old reference figures are repeated. On the other hand, there is a search for new affective references (in this case the therapist) that represent a corrective emotional experience such as to be able to implement in everyday life new responses to the demands of the external world and relationships.
The concept of transference emerged in Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic practice in the late 1800s. Freud believed that the inner experiences and conflicts experienced in childhood form the foundation for the development of the adult personality. Psychoanalysis aims to uncover these unconscious conflicts, which may be the cause of present-day behaviour patterns and emotions.
Let us take an example. If a patient's mother was extremely judgmental of them as a child, and the therapist makes a remark that the patient perceives as judgmental, the patient may bring this up and even become angry with the therapist.
This reaction can be interpreted as transference as the patient experience the same quality of feelings towards the therapist as they did towards their mother.
transference happens in everyday life, and not only during psychotherapy.
For example, a woman might feel overprotective of a younger friend who (unconsciously) reminds them of their little sibling.
A young employee might feel the same way about his father as he does about his boss, who reminds him of him in some way.
Last but not least, transference is also inherent to romantic relationships
How transference works in psychotherapy
Although many of Freud's theories proved difficult to prove empirically, his theories laid the foundations for the development of modern psychology, and a number of his ideas, including transference, remain fundamental to this day.
In psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy, this type of projection is considered a useful therapeutic tool.
By focusing on a certain relational dynamic - such as the tendency to feel anger or anxiety disproportionately in certain types of interactions - the therapist can help the patient understand and identify those behavioural patterns that contribute to the problem outside of therapy.
However, in some cases, such as when a patient shows hostility or sexual desire towards the psychotherapist, transference becomes a threat to be managed.
What are the different types of transference in therapy?
During therapy, both positive and negative transference can occur. An idealising transference occurs when a patient believes that his or her therapist has positive characteristics (e.g. wisdom). If the positive feelings are not exaggerated, this phenomenon can be very helpful in consolidating the therapist-patient alliance. If, on the other hand, the patient projects feelings such as suspicion or anger onto the therapist because of previous relationships or experiences, we speak of negative transference.
A negative transference towards the psychotherapist is often a sign that the therapy is proceeding in the right direction, as the experiences and feelings you once had towards other significant attachment figures have been reactivated.
It is extremely important that these feelings can be explored in therapy.
On the contrary, not talking about it could jeopardise the success of the therapy and lead to early termination.
The advice here is to not protect your therapist, and to talk quietly about your experiences, even if they are negative. We, therapists, have been trained, during long years of training, to handle these kinds of situations and to use them in favour of the patient.
Transference: a 'score to settle' with the past
All psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapies pay great attention to transference. For example, in classical psychoanalysis, bringing transference to the surface and resolving it is the main goal of treatment.
There is no doubt that transference and its interpretation play a transformative role in the patient who, with settle time, acquires more and more awareness of the deep dynamics that have led him to be, in the here and now, what he is: with his strengths, weaknesses, criticalities, symptoms and psychic suffering.
In the gradual development of transference, not only feelings from the past are shifted onto the psychotherapist, but also inner conflicts that are no more than real or fantasised 'memories' of relationships with one's caregivers (parents, relatives, reference figures). The more trauma in the patient's history, the more intense and difficult the transference towards the psychotherapist will be.
For the patient to manifest their feelings of transference towards the therapist in a psychotherapeutic process, time is needed: as in any human relationship.
In short, before the patient's transference emerges and is interpreted, an adequate therapeutic alliance must be created between patient and therapist. And this is not so obvious.
Therefore, psychotherapists must be very attentive and sensitive to the patient's first transferential manifestations, without venturing into hasty interpretations that could compromise the therapeutic alliance and subsequent therapeutic progress.