Definition
Transference is the process by which the client transfers onto the therapist emotions, attitudes, expectations, and relationship patterns that originally belong to other significant figures (typically early ones such as parents, caregivers, or partners). The client is not necessarily aware of this projection; they experience it as a direct reaction to the therapist or the therapeutic situation.
The concept was introduced by Sigmund Freud and is central to psychodynamic and psychoanalytic approaches. However, transference phenomena appear in all therapeutic relationships regardless of theoretical orientation, because all close relationships activate internal attachment and relational patterns.
Types of transference
Positive transference: The client experiences positive emotions toward the therapist: deep trust, admiration, idealized affection. It can facilitate the therapeutic alliance in early stages of the work.
Negative transference: The client experiences distrust, anger, disappointment, or fear toward the therapist, frequently without direct cause in the professional's actual conduct. If not worked with, it can damage the alliance or lead to dropout.
Erotic transference: The client experiences romantic or sexual attraction toward the therapist. Requires careful clinical management and, in many ethical frameworks, supervision.
When it is a therapeutic resource and when it is an obstacle
Transference becomes a resource when the therapist identifies it, names it carefully, and uses it as a window into the client's relational patterns. "I notice that when I arrive a few minutes late you become quieter. I want to understand what happens there for you."
It becomes an obstacle when it is not worked with: it can generate excessive dependency, unrepaired anger, or repetition of dysfunctional patterns within the therapeutic relationship without that being therapeutic.
Ethical considerations
The therapist does not act on the transference (does not reciprocate the affection, does not maintain a relationship outside the therapeutic frame). They use it as clinical information. Ethical codes of all psychologist associations explicitly prohibit dual or sexual relationships with current clients and, with variations, with former clients.
How it is worked with in session
In psychodynamic approaches, transference is worked with directly. The therapist names and explores it: "What happens for you when you feel that toward me?" In humanistic and integrative approaches, it is addressed more laterally. The therapist is attentive to the client's reactions without necessarily making explicit interpretations.
Related terms
- Countertransference: the therapist's reaction to the client
- Therapeutic alliance
References
- Freud, S. (1912). The dynamics of transference. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. XII.
- Kahn, M. (1991). Between therapist and client: The new relationship. W. H. Freeman.