Table of Contents
What triggers transference?
For example, transference in therapy happens when a patient attaches anger, hostility, love, adoration, or a host of other possible feelings onto their therapist or doctor. Therapists know this can happen. In transference, someone may be described as “projecting” feelings from past relationships onto the therapist in the present. But there is also a distinct concept of projection—also associated with Freud and psychoanalysis—that means attributing one’s own characteristics or feelings to another person. Positive Transference Transference can sometimes be a good thing. An example of positive transference is when you apply enjoyable aspects of your past relationships to the relationship with your therapist. This can have a positive outcome because you see your therapist as caring, wise, and concerned about you. After you realize that transference is very common and not shameful, talk about your feelings with your therapist. Professing your love (or whatever emotion you’re feeling) may be easier said than done, but it can help your therapist understand your issues and help you get the most out of your therapy. Transference won’t get resolved in a single session, but it will respond to the work you do to address it. It can take some time, but a good therapist will help you feel supported while you do the work.
What happens during transference?
Transference is when someone redirects their feelings about one person onto someone else. During a therapy session, it usually refers to a person transferring their feelings about someone else onto their therapist. Countertransference is when a therapist transfers feelings onto the patient. Abstract. A case report of a transference cure is presented in which the mechanisms productive of change were obtained from the patient external to the therapeutic situation. Essentially the patient produced material indicating his analysis of a transference distortion, beyond the awareness of his therapist. The best way to prevent countertransference is for the therapist to first be aware of how common the phenomenon is. Next, it’s essential for the therapist to be mindful of their own feelings and behaviors. When a client falls in love with a therapist it is likely to be ‘transference’: the predisposition we all have to transfer onto people in the present experiences and related emotions and unmet longings associated with people from our past.
What happens during transference?
Transference in psychoanalytic theory is when you project feelings about someone else onto your therapist. A classic example of transference is when a client falls in love with their therapist. However, one might also transfer feelings of rage, anger, distrust, or dependence. Psychiatrists (Freud, 1926) call this process transference, whereby one’s emotions originally associated with one person, such as a father, are unconsciously shifted to another person, usually an authority figure such as a manager. Therapists experience transference as well, which is known as countertransference. Since a therapist is also human, he or she will have their own history of hope, love, desire to heal others, as well as their own sadness, attachment wounds and relationship issues. Countertransference, which occurs when a therapist transfers emotions to a person in therapy, is often a reaction to transference, a phenomenon in which the person in treatment redirects feelings for others onto the therapist. Tips for dealing with transference You are not ‘crazy’ for being attracted to your therapist or associating them with your father. The important thing is to bring these feelings to light and discuss them together. If you are feeling trapped by your thoughts and unable to break free, try to give it time.
What is transference and why does it occur?
Transference is a phenomenon in which one seems to direct feelings or desires related to an important figure in one’s life—such as a parent—toward someone who is not that person. Because transference happens without us knowing it, we generally can’t explain why we are behaving as we are. We carry years behind us that have no discernible shape, which we have forgotten about and which we aren’t in a position to talk others through in a manner that would win us sympathy and understanding. Just like the other forms of transference, the negative transference is usually an unconscious projection of negative feelings that the client transfers from early childhood relationships onto the psychotherapist (see my article: Discovering the Unconscious Emotions At the Root of Your Current Problems). Since the transference between patient and therapist happens on an unconscious level, psychodynamic therapists who are largely concerned with a patient’s unconscious material use the transference to reveal unresolved conflicts patients have with childhood figures. The general idea is that, unconsciously, emotional feelings that you may have had or wished you could have had as a child are transferred from your parents or other caretaker to your therapist. So clients often have feelings for their therapists that are like the ones that children have towards their parents. This kind of post-trauma reaction is called traumatic transference, an unconscious dynamic that happens when someone has been traumatized and is later in a situation that reminds him or her of that trauma.
Where does transference come from?
In the nineteenth century, transference started out as a neurologic term; Freud used that concept of displaceable energies in his neurologic writings as early as 1888. Then in Studies in Hysteria, Freud explicated the basis by which ideas dissociated and made for a mésalliance with the physician. In “The Dynamics of Transference” Freud writes about or alludes to (1) transference to infantile objects of love, that is, patterns formed early in life; (2) transference to one or more of a specific “psychical series,” e.g., father-imago, mother-imago, what we now would talk about as internalized object relationships; … By understanding how transference is occurring, a mental health professional may be better able to understand both a person’s condition and/or aspects of the person’s early life that affect them in the present. Transference may often occur between a therapist and a person in therapy. Negative transference is when a client transfers negative feelings about someone (e.g., anger, jealousy, fear, resentment) onto their therapist. For example, someone raised by a hostile, angry father may experience their male therapist in a similar way.
What are signs of transference?
An obvious sign of transference is when a client directs emotions at the therapist. For example, if a client cries and accuses the therapist of hurting their feelings for asking a probing question, it may be a sign that a parent hurt the client regarding a similar question/topic in the past. Reactive transference (or countertransference)—what the client reacts to because of what the therapist brings in the relationship. What’s the treatment for transference? In cases when the therapist uses transference as part of the therapy process, continuing therapy will help “treat” the transference. The therapist can work with you to end the redirection of emotions and feelings. You’ll work to properly attribute those emotions. Delusions in the transference are delusions that occur during a course of therapy in the context of the patient-therapist relationship. The usual, nondelusional, transference, by virtue of its illusionary properties, is amenable to reality testing. Whether your therapist knows you’re attracted to them Therapists know that this happens sometimes, and they’re usually more than willing to address it — if you want to. If you don’t ever wish to bring it up, that’s your right as well.
How do you know if its transference?
An obvious sign of transference is when a client directs emotions at the therapist. For example, if a client cries and accuses the therapist of hurting their feelings for asking a probing question, it may be a sign that a parent hurt the client regarding a similar question/topic in the past. Transference is when someone redirects their feelings about one person onto someone else. During a therapy session, it usually refers to a person transferring their feelings about someone else onto their therapist. Countertransference is when a therapist transfers feelings onto the patient. It’s not uncommon for therapists to have feelings for clients, and vice versa—call it transference, countertransference, or something else. But we have to remember that it’s the therapist’s job to meet the client’s therapeutic needs and goals, not the therapist’s own personal or professional wants and needs. Transference won’t get resolved in a single session, but it will respond to the work you do to address it. It can take some time, but a good therapist will help you feel supported while you do the work. Because the concept of transference was first used in psychodynamic therapy, some people feel it has no place in the person-centred approach. However, Carl Rogers himself refers to transference in his writing, stating that transferential attitudes are evident in the context of person-centred counselling.