A transfer is a very important element for psychoanalytic therapy. It occurs when the patient (analyzing) projects onto people of his (her) acquaintance important figures of himself (the patient). As we are going to talk about transference in therapy, the analyzing will have as "target" his (her) psychoanalyst.

For example, the analisand may see in the psychoanalyst the figure of the father or of the mother, and then transfer to the psychoanalyst affections (love, rivalry, etc.) that he/she would use towards his/her father or mother. This process happens in an unconscious and symbolic way. When well conducted in therapy, it favors the breaking down of resistances and contributes new and more spontaneous elements to the analysis.

Through transference, the patient can recognize his or her patterns that were previously unconscious. Thus, he or she will take a new look at themselves and also at the way they relate to other people.

We will look at the types of transference, especially in the conceptualizations of Freud, Lacan, and Ferenczi.

What is it? meaning or concept in Psychoanalysis

For Sigmund Freud, transference is when the analyzer (patient) reproduces his or her patterns of thought and behavior toward the analyst.

Analyst and analisand are people and, therefore, bring different life baggage. There is no way to undo this during therapy.

Then, the analyzer is expected to reproduce patterns of behavior And this process is the transference.

Freud understands transference as being a process that happens during therapy When the analyzed (patient) begins to reproduce for the analyst (unconsciously) psychic patterns and behaviors that the patient had built in the past with other people or situations.

Generally speaking, we can say that transference occurs on several occasions in human relationships, but the psychoanalytic focus ends up being the analyst-analyand relationship, that is, during the analytic therapy .

So, during the analysis, the analyzing one "relives" his psychic life in the way he interacts with the analyst :

• the idea that the analyzed makes of himself,
• the relations of affection with things or people,
• the fantasies and representations, etc.

It is not possible to conceive what is psychoanalysis transference begins to emerge from the very beginning of psychoanalytic treatment (or preliminary interviews, or rehearsal treatment) and tends to deepen as the therapy sessions go on.

Types of Transference according to Freud

For Freud, there are two main types of transferences, considering their impacts in therapy:

• positive transfer It means that, by transferring, the analisand engages the heart of his psychic troubles and reveals his "true face". It reduces the preoccupation with "what image is the analyst making of me?
• negative transfer Thus, the focus ends up being only to criticize or question the analyst, which can add excessive resistance to free association.

Freud also mentions the erotic transfer This occurs when the analisand unconsciously feels attracted to the analyst and, without knowing it, this helps him/her to expose him/herself more.

The erotic transference can be related to childhood, if we understand it in the direction of Oedipus complex That is, it can be an attraction, even if unconscious to the analyzed, that makes the psychoanalyst assume the place of father (or even of mother). With this, he brings along the dimension of the oedipal passion.

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However, when we talk about the Oedipus theme in transference, we must understand that:

• love for a parent can be transferred : for example, the analyzed who falls in love with his psychoanalyst (putting her in the place of his mother);
• rivalry with a parent can also be transferred : as when the analisand enters in conflict with his psychoanalyst (putting him in the place of his father).

Remembering that these are not the only oedipal manifestations that exist. After all, the analyzed may be interested in his/her psychoanalyst. The fact that the analytic setting is a differentiated place for listening and elaboration (in comparison with other interpersonal interactions) may favor this:

• Both the subject-supposed-knowledge (we will talk about this below), and along with it the enamoring and the ideal of "I";
• as the rivalry and conflict with the psychoanalyst, through negative transference.

Examples of transference in psychoanalysis

After all, how does transference manifest itself in the analytic setting. How does the analisand (patient) show this transference to the analyst? And how can the analyst identify some examples of this happening?

We saw that the analyzing person already brings a life history. It may be that, in childhood or adolescence, he was used to a pattern of verbal aggressiveness in the interaction with his parents. It may occur that, in therapy, the analyzing person transfers this place of father/mother to the analyst, adopting the same attitudes.

Often cited is the example of transference in which the analisand repeats with the analyst a pattern of behavior that he had with his father or mother.

Or when he expresses contrariness or affection with the analyst because of something the analyst said or because of the direction the therapy is taking.

Or when the analyzer begins to rationalize and judge the analyst, replicating a conduct that he (analyzer) is used to doing "out there".

Let's look at some examples:

• Aggressiveness The analyst assumes (and the analyzing one can even confirm this) that this is his standard behavior against anyone who contradicts him.
• Complaints The analyzing one says that he or she is not feeling the results in therapy or is thinking of stopping, and does so based on other ideas of "results" that he or she has in the outside world.
• Control This control can be a replica of the control that the analisand usually exerts over other people outside, and that in therapy acts as a resistance of his ego not to advance inyour self-knowledge.
• Subservience : the analyzing one accepts the totality of what the analyst says, or feels ashamed and frightened by the figure of the analyst, in a similar way as in other relationships (father, mother, spouse, etc.).
• Love : the analisand feels love for the analyst, which can be an enamoring or other forms of amorous manifestation.

Body signs, nervous tics, changes in the tone of voice that the patient starts to have in the sessions, among others, can also be forms of manifestation of transference in psychoanalytic therapy.

The analyst's management of transference

It is important that the analyst does not react with aggressiveness or arrogance that perhaps the analisand is already expecting as a response.

The analyst should not argue that he (analyst) is correct, nor should he anticipate defining or judging the analyzing one by pointing out that he (analyzing one) is acting this way. The important thing is for the analyst to identify and work this transferred "material" exactly as a "material" of analysis.

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About transfer management that is, the way the analyst will react to the transference of the analyzing one:

• If the analyst performs a countertransference in the same currency (with aggressiveness) In this way, you will be demobilizing the analisand from transference, or strengthening the negative transference as something "natural".
• On the other hand, if the analyst does not react in the way expected by the analyzer but takes advantage of that transference to ask new questions to the analyzing one, without irritation and without judging or trying to "define" the analyzing one in that moment, will be showing that the analysis is a time-place where the analyzing one can feel safe to be himself, a different space from the "outside world".

So, even negative transference can be reversed to the benefit of therapy. A transfer is only hopelessly negative when the analisand decides to interrupt the treatment because of the troubled breakdown of his relationship with the analyst.

Regarding the types of transference, we have already mentioned the positive and negative transference, as well as the erotic transference (which Freud understands as potentially positive). Other authors may list other types of transference. We will only talk about one more type, due to its relevance.

How can the psychoanalyst talk about transference with the analisand?

In our opinion, the analyst should point out to the analisand that transference may be occurring, but does not necessarily need to call this "transference", because the aim is not to lecture the analisand. One should avoid, however, pointing out all the analyst's suspicions as transferencial; the best is to focus on what is being formed as a pattern, a reiteration. Moreover, one should avoid aaggressive "denunciation" of the analyzer, because this perhaps speaks more about the analyst than about the transference (it would be, perhaps, already a inadequate countertransference of the analyst).

A interesting handling of the analyst when perceiving the transference in our view:

• Do not manifest to the analyzer that everything is transference ; it is best to wait for more repeated elements before formulating an interpretation.
• Do not act with the analyzer with a constratransferential response that feeds the behavior he expects and that he already experiences outside For example, it is better to act in a warm and peaceful way if the analisand has been aggressive; not to judge him in response if he judges the analyst, if the analisand is used to being judged back in response.
• Do not "lecture" about transference during therapy ; one can, of course, eventually mention the concept of transference and its explanation if it is relevant or if the analisand asks about it or wants to understand why he or she is acting as the analyst does.
• Do not focus on the analyst's own life stories, nor those of other patients The analisand would have good reason to think: "If this analyst talks about others to me, he should talk all about me to the other patients" (this would probably result in a negative transference from the patient).
• When possible, point out that the transfer may be taking place It is not necessary to call it transference, nor do it all the time, but it is interesting for the analyst to sometimes talk about transference with the analisand. Questions are good ways to do this (but not only questions). Example of a more indirect and tangential question: "Why are you feeling this way today in therapy?" Example of a more direct and incisive question: "This wayhow you acted today in therapy says something about how you act outside of therapy?".

How much the more strengthened the ego of the analyzed Transference can occur right in the first sessions, but the analisand may not be prepared for a more direct approach from the analyst right in the first sessions. Hence the importance of the analyst's perception about the moment and about the adequate discursive form of handling transference with each patient.

When the analyst condones the transference or responds to it inappropriately, will be suggesting to the analyzing that transference is not interesting to therapy This undermines the free association and the spontaneity that transference could add to the treatment process. With this, there can be a return of the analisand to a more formal and resistant behavior in therapy, as he was doing before.

Narcissistic Transference (Ferenczi)

The psychoanalyst Sandor Ferenczi considered there to be narcissistic transference : when the analyzing person measures his own words too much for fear of not getting the analyst's acceptance.

We know that, in linguistics, discourse is permeated by the image that the speaker ("I") makes of the interlocutor ("you" or "you"). In fact, discourse is marked by the image that "I" make of the image that the other makes of me.

Discourse = image that I make [of the image that the other makes of me].

So, even when only "I" speak and the other listens, in a way the other also speaks in me, because "I" speak taking into consideration the image that the other makes of me.

There is thus a game of mirrors, where "I" am constantly being evaluated by the other and for the other in me .

It is inevitable that this also occurs in psychoanalytic therapy.

In the narcissistic transference, the analyzed can avoid addressing certain issues, or intentionally modify stories This is a form of transference because the analyzing person fears losing the bond that is formed with the analyst.

So, the narcissistic transference :

• is, in the beginning, a positive transference, because the analyzed identifies this bond that is formed in the analytic pair (that is, analyst + analyzed),
• but it can turn negative if it is perpetuated in the analysis sessions, because important topics can be seen as taboo.

The ideal would be for the analytic pair to strengthen a positive transference that allows the analyzed to feel safe to free-associate.

The Supposed Subject-knower, being Jacques Lacan

As to when the transfer occurs, there is no rule, to some extent, transference occurs from the very beginning of psychoanalytic treatment although it is expected to strengthen after a certain number of analysis sessions.

We say that it occurs from the beginning because the analisand, when seeking treatment, already brings an image about the analyst. This image is what the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan calls Subject Supposed-Knower .

It means that the analyzer:

• assumes a place of authority for the analyst and
• can attribute to the analyst his "ideal of self" (that is, what the analyzing person wishes to be).

In the analyzer's view, the analyst has a knowledge about the human psyche that can improve or cure the analyzer's psychic dilemmas. It is a "supposed knowledge" because it is not certain whether the analyst will actually have this power.

This supposed knowledge can be understood as a form of positive transference. After all, it is something that mobilizes the analisand to want to seek therapy and promotes a therapeutic bond for him to constitute his free associations.

It turns out that, in the course of the analysis, with the strengthening of the ego of the analyzed (don't confuse this with narcissism), another important step will be taken. The analisand will become stronger and will "dethrone" (remove from the throne) the analyst. This is because the analisand will be less dependent of this outside look. He will be more aware of his desiring order and of his psychic organization.

The subjective destitution at the end of therapy

Thus, the fruitful end to a psychoanalytic therapy process:

• will not be the interruption because of relational attrition of the analytical pair ( negative transfer ),
• nor will it be the incremental resistance brought into the analysis because of the coyness of narcissistic transference ,
• but it will be a construction of positive transfer that gave tranquility for the analyzer to free-associate and get to know himself better.

For Jacques Lacan, at the end of a fruitful process of analysis, the analyzed

• in therapy: it will promote subjective dismissal of this supposed-knowing subject that is, he will see that "the analyst is not all that", although he does not reject the importance of attributing this place of supposed-knowledge to the analyst during therapy.
• out of therapy: will dismiss also all the Big Others (or several of them) .

Lacan understands Big Other as an idealization (such as the psychoanalyst's supposed-knowledge) that the subject-analyzer attributes to other people or institutions that occupied the subject's psyche as maximum authority figures for certain discourses relevant to the subject.

For example, in promoting the subjective dismissal of the Great Others, the subject-analyzer:

• will dismiss his analyst as the "lord" (Big Other) of his psyche,
• will be able to dismiss his father as "master" (Big Other) of his moral life,
• may dismiss his religion as the "lord" (Big Other) of his moral life or what he is allowed to believe etc.

The psychoanalyst as the target of transference

Although the analyst is the "target" of the analysand's emotions and reactions, transference can have a positive function in analytic therapy because:

• signals that the analyzer has a trusting relationship with the analyst to allow you to act more spontaneously;
• shows that the analisand feels towards the analyst what we can call "love" (or transferential love) in the sense of perceiving that the analyst is engaged in this coexistence and, also because of this, the analisand can "lower the guard" of his resistances; and
• is usually accompanied by a emotional or sentimental experience This allows for a greater flow of content that can be analyzed.

Thus, the transference allows some resistance to be minimized, with the analyzing one offering more "material" to the interpretation. It would be up to the analyst's interpretation to notice and work with this transference: how much of it (in the present of the clinic) does it help to understand the patterns of the analyzand's psychic formation in his past?

According to David Zimerman ("Handbook of Psychoanalytic Technique"), transference allows the analyst more elements to interpret "the present with the past, the imaginary with the real, the unconscious with the conscious.

Still according to Zimerman: "The transfer concept has been undergoing successive transformations and renewed questioning, such as, for example, whether the figure of the analyst is a (...) repetition of old introjected object relations or whether the analyst also behaves as a new, real person."

In other words, Zimerman summarizes that transference can sometimes be a "reliving" with the analyst of the past psychic life of the analyzed, and other times it can be a new behavior of the analyzed in relation to the analyst. But, in one case or another, the transference involves:

• an therapeutic bond between analysee and analyst
• that enhances more emotional engagement of the analyzed during the analysis
• e more material to interpret by the analyst (or the analytic pair).

The role of transference in Freud's psychoanalysis

In the psychoanalytic method or model, this conduct is remarkable in the relationship between therapist and patient. It is even stimulated as a strategic tool for the elaboration of the best approach in the resolution of psychological eventualities. The concept of transfer was an inseparable legacy of his Freudian studies treated in his book on hysteria. Freud developed methods that contributed to a great advance in the treatment of hysteria.

A priori This relationship occurs in an imagetic way, in which the patient creates a fictitious bond with his analyst, projecting onto him archetypes from his unconscious and infantilized memories.

A transfer Freud noticed that, many times, during his analyses, some patients seemed to nurture a certain affection and desire for him, feelings incompatible with the doctor-patient relationship. However, Freud noticed that this transferencial bond had a positive and fundamental aspect for the progress of therapy, for the reasons explained at the beginning of this article.

For Zimerman, therapy is mainly about managing three points: resistances, transferences and interpretations It is only possible when the analyst takes seriously the psychoanalytic tripod of the Psychoanalysis Training Course and also after the Training he goes searching:

• more knowledge: studying theory continuously;
• best ways of approach, with the supervision of cases he is analyzing, together with another more experienced psychoanalyst, and
• more self-knowledge, with the analyst himself getting to know more about himself, that is, the analyst himself doing his analysis (being analyzed) with another professional.

An example applicable to interpersonal relationships

For a more practical illustration of what transference is for psychoanalysis. For example, if an individual is treated by another as a father, he will have the authority to tell you what to do. Nevertheless, you the individual will expect from the other a return which would be something like parental love and care.

The transference, a priori, can be reverted into positive gains for the patient, depending on the way he elaborates the internal tools to decode and re-signify his "characters". These characters are glimpsed in other people who, in a certain way, refer to his own existential gaps .

As if a person nearby fills a void or a lack in another person. This void can be of someone you miss or of some important figure or character in your life, such as a father or a mother.

It is important to say that the idea of transference is often used in other contexts, such as in the parent-child relationship, or in the teacher-student relationship. This is used to mark a personal and affective identification that favors the process of creation or education. However, strictly speaking, the idea of transference is more appropriately used in therapy, to mark the bond between analyst and analisand Many theorists will reject the possibility of using this term for other contexts.

The transfer in the psychoanalytic therapeutic process

In psychoanalysis, transference occurs in the relationship between patient and psychoanalyst, analyst or therapist. In it, the patient's wishes Then, the repetition of childhood models, such as parental figures, occurs.

The therapist replaces them, that is, these desires or figures are transferred to the analyst. Along with her, impressions of the first affective bonds can be experienced and felt in the present time.

In this sense, transference becomes a great instrument by means of which the analyst can work with the patient's past. In this way, the transfer management is considered the most important part of the analysis technique.

According to the psychoanalytic studies of transference, Freud created and systematized a theory of analytic technique, thus allowing the understanding and articulation of clinical phenomena raised by the treatment.

Overcoming Psychic Distress During Therapy

This "access" to the patient's past by means of transference is very important to the analyst, because Freud, during the analysis, first dwells on the determining factors that caused the patient to become ill. Then, he analyzes the defensive reorganization that occurs after the illness.

Then Freud looks for a possibility that these factors give rise to some therapeutic influence. This is in order to encourage the neurotic to overcome the conflict between his libido impulses This psychic health can be understood, according to the psychoanalytic method, as the becoming free from the unconscious action of repressed impulses.

Freud, early on, discovered that the repression coming from the coercive mechanisms of society intensifies the internal conflict. Conflict between psychic forces of distinct natures, the libido against repression. A sexual tendency and an ascetic tendency coexisting inside the personality. By analyzing transference, the psychoanalyst can have greater access to this conflict .

The transference in our daily life

Transference, however, is not only present in psychoanalytic sessions and couches. In general, it is an inherent aspect of the human personality.

In various situations in life we can think of transference acting, in its positive or negative form, as in relationships:

• between a son and his father or mother;
• between a student and his teacher;
• between a customer and a salesperson, etc.

Transference pervades the most diverse niches of relationships established between people. When we project onto someone unrealistic expectations that we would like that person to assume, based on a pattern of thought and behavior that we have "naturalized" from other interpersonal relationships.

There invariably occurs a self-sabotage in our way of seeing things more clearly, as they really are. This distortion is fed by the self-deception of the shadows of our lacks that we project onto the other. It can be present in many moments of the individual's life.

Freud's writings on transference

All or almost all of Freud's studies of clinical cases are opportunities to reflect on transference. In addition, other more theoretical texts, such as " About Transfer Dynamics", of 1912, and " Remember, Repeat, and Elaborate", of 1914. Besides the " Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis", In these studies, there are some retakes and reformulations proposed by Freud.

The transference has never ceased to occupy its place as a fundamental concept in psychoanalysis This concept provided the basis for the construction of psychoanalytic knowledge about therapy, the analytic pair, the analytic setting, and the effectiveness of the analysis.

Freud himself made several formulations of his theories, related or not to transfer Moreover, Sigmund Freud never denied the difficulties of the procedure and the obstacles that existed in his discoveries.

Freud always tried to analyze and investigate the barriers encountered in the process of his analysis. This helped that the psychoanalytic method was always being revised, work that continued with other theorists of psychoanalysis.

Bibliographic references

FREUD, S. Fundamentos da clínica psicanalítica: Sobre a dinâmica da transferência (1912). 2nd ed.

FREUD, S. Introductory lectures on psychoanalysis (1916-1917). in Freud's Collected Works vol. 13. SP: Cia das Letras.

FERENCZI, S. "The psychoanalytic technique" (chapter "The realm of countertransference"), in Ferenczi's Complete Works vol. 2.

ZIMERMAN, D. Manual da Técnica Psicanalítica: uma re-visão. Porto Alegre: Artmed, 2008.

This text about the concept of transference in psychoanalysis and Freud was written by Paulo Vieira He is the content manager of the Training Course in Clinical Psychoanalysis.