Transference
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Transference is a phenomenon in psychology characterized by unconscious redirection of feelings for one person to another. One definition of transference is "the inappropriate repetition in the present of a relationship that was important in a person's childhood."[1] Another definition is "the redirection of feelings and desires and esp. of those unconsciously retained from childhood toward a new object."[2] Still another definition is "a reproduction of emotions relating to repressed experiences, esp. of childhood, and the substitution of another person . . . for the original object of the repressed impulses."[3] Transference was first described by Sigmund Freud, who acknowledged its importance for psychoanalysis for better understanding of the patient's feelings.
It is common for people to transfer feelings from their parents to their partners (emotional incest) or to children (cross-generational entanglements). 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 The Psychology of the Transference, Carl Jung states that within the transference dyad both participants typically experience a variety of opposites, 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 this tension allows one to grow and to transform.[4]
Transference is common. Only in a personally or socially harmful context can transference be described as a pathological issue.
There is, however, an experimental, new theory of transference known as AMT (Abusive Multiple Transference), put forth by David W. Bernstein, in which abusers not only transfer negative feelings directed towards their former abusers to the actual victim, but also transfer the power and dominance of the former abusers to themselves. This kind of transference is sometimes part of the psychological makeup of murderers -- for example the serial killer Carroll Cole. While his father was away in World War II, Cole's mother engaged in several extra-marital affairs, forcing Cole to watch. She later beat him to ensure that he would not alert his father. Cole would later come to murder many women whom he considered "loose," and those in general who reminded him of his mother.
AMT also ties in very closely with Power/Control Killers, as the feeling and view of control is passed from one abuser to those succeeding him or her.
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[edit] Transference and counter-transference during psychotherapy
In a therapy context, transference refers to redirection of a client's feelings from a significant person to a therapist. Transference is often manifested as an erotic attraction towards a therapist. Although transference is often characterized as a useful tool for healing old wounds, the relationship will need to have enough trust between a client and a therapist so that the transference does not interfere with a therapist’s ability to help a client.
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. Some therapists become confused between clients and intimate partners if counter-transference is not recognized and appropriately addressed by the therapist.
One reason for the different terminology for the phenomena when it happens in the therapist is that it is often a response to the clients transference. For example a client who thinks a therapist is "great" may elicit a response of self aggrandizement in the therapist.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Heinrich Racker : "Transference and Counter-Transference", Publisher: International Universities Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8236-8323-0
[edit] Weblinks
- ^ Leonard H. Kapelovitz, M.D., To Love and To Work/A Demonstration and Discussion of Psychotherapy, p. 66 (1987).
- ^ Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary (8th ed. 1976).
- ^ Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language (2d College Ed. 1970).
- ^ Jung, Carl C. The Psychology of the Transference, Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-01752-2
