Transfer and countertransference

Below, we detail two of the key concepts for psychoanalysis and its clinical practice.

Transference and countertransference are two fundamental terms of psychoanalysis. They serve as pillars for clinical practice, since they are a fundamental part of the analytical relationship. Furthermore, although they are two different concepts, at the same time transference and countertransference are clearly inseparable.

The analytical encounter gives way to a patient-analyst interrelation, in a space where the unconscious is allowed to circulate as freely as possible. In this interrelation the dynamic between transference and countertransference begins, on the part of the patient and the analyst respectively.

What is transfer?

The term transference is not exclusive to psychoanalysis, but is also used in other fields. Now, what does seem to exist is a common denominator: refers to the idea of displacement or substitution of one place for another. Thus, for example, it can be observed in doctor-patient or student-teacher relationships.

In the case of psychoanalysis, it is understood as the recreation of childhood fantasies where their destination is the person of the analyst. The transference constitutes the superimposition of something previous on something current, thus becoming a privileged area to advance in the direction of cure.

In the beginning, Freud considered transference as the worst obstacle to the therapeutic process.. I assumed it as a resistance on the part of the patient to access her unconscious material. However, it didn’t take long for him to realize that his role transcended that resistance.

Thus, Freud, in his text Transfer dynamics of 1912, presents transference as a paradoxical phenomenon: despite being constituted as resistance, it is fundamental for the work of analysis. At this moment, distinguish the positive transference -made of tenderness and love- from the negative transference -vector of hostile and aggressive feelings-.

“The patient does not remember, in general, anything that has been forgotten and repressed, but acts on it. He does not reproduce it as a memory, but as an action; he repeats it, without knowing, of course, that he does it.”

-Sigmund Freud-

Contributions from other psychoanalysts on the concept of transference

After Freud, a large amount of work has been dedicated to the question of transference, rethinking the topic and comparing it with the original development of the phenomenon. Everyone agreeing that It is based on the relationship that occurs in the therapeutic situation between the analyst and patient..

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Thus, in Melanie Klein, the transference is conceived as a re-enactment during the session of all the patient’s unconscious fantasies. During the analytical work, the patient will evoke his psychic reality and use the figure of the analyst to revive unconscious fantasies.

In the conception of Donald Woods Winnicott, the phenomenon of transference in analysis can be understood as a replica of the maternal bond, hence the need to abandon rigorous neutrality. The use that the patient can make of the analyst as a transitional object, as described in his article The use of an object from 1969, gives another dimension to the transfer and interpretation. He affirms that the patient needs the therapeutic bond to reaffirm its existence.

Transference link

Although it has been said that the transference has to do with the recreation of childhood fantasies about the figure of the analyst. For this to happen, it has to First, a transference link must be established, which allows the patient to recreate them and work with them.

To create the link it is necessary that, once the patient accepts his desire to work on what happens to him, he meets with an analyst who assumes knowledge of what happens to him. Lacan named it as “Subject supposed to know.” This will produce the first level of trust in that relationship, which will give way to analytical work.

However, throughout the analytical journey Manifestations may occur in the transference link to which the analyst must be attentive and manage them opportunely., such as: signs of falling in love with the therapist; the tendency to test the power of his attractions by demoting the analyst to the position of lover; the tendency to follow the therapist’s instructions without questioning; rapid improvements without parallel work and effort and other more subtle signs, such as frequently arriving late for appointments or frequent references to other professionals.

Of course, not only do these types of situations occur on the part of the patient, but countertransference manifestations may occur. In this sense, the analyst also has to be attentive and analyze himself if they occur: discuss with the patient; having impulses to ask the patient for favors; dreaming about the patient; excessive interest in the patient; inability to understand the material to be analyzed when the patient refers to topics similar to those experienced by the analyst; carelessness in maintaining the frame; intense emotional reactions related to the patient; etc

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What is countertransference?

The term countertransference is introduced by Freud in Future perspectives of psychoanalytic therapy of 1910. It is described as the emotional response of the analyst to the stimuli coming from the patient.as a result of its influence on the analyst’s unconscious feelings.

The analyst must be attentive to these phenomena that could occur for a simple reason: could become an obstacle to cure. Although there are also authors who propose that everything felt in countertransference, which is known to have nothing to do with the analyst, can be returned or pointed out to the patient.

It may be that the feelings that the patient arouses in the analyst, when returned to him, generate an awareness of them or of greater understanding of what is happening in the therapeutic relationship. Something that perhaps had not been shared with words until that moment.

For example, reliving a childhood scene and the analyst beginning to feel sadness; However, the patient interpret it and live it like rage The analyst can return what he is feeling so that the patient establishes contact with the real emotion that is masked with anger.

Relationship between transference and countertransference

On the one hand, countertransference is defined by its direction: the analyst’s feelings in relation to the patient. On the other hand, it is defined as a balance that is further proof that the reaction of one is not independent of what comes from the other. That is, countertransference is related to what is produced in transfer, so one influences the other.

Transference and countertransference influence each other.

In this sense, countertransference can be an obstacle if the analyst acts on it. If you allow yourself to be carried away by those emotions that you begin to feel towards the patient – love, hate, rejection, anger – you break the law of abstinence and neutrality by which you must abide. There, far from benefiting analytical work, it harms it.

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In such a way that the starting point is the transfer of the patient. He communicates – or attempts – all of his experiences and the analyst only responds to what the patient says with what seems pertinent to him, without placing his own affects in the interventions he carries out.

The patient relives the fantasies, acts on them, but does not do so consciously, for this reason interpretation plays a fundamental role in the cure.

Function of transference and countertransference

The analysis presupposes that the patient’s transference link with his analyst has already been established.. It is in the game between transference and countertransference where affects, unconscious desires, tolerances and intolerances will emerge.

From the transference relationship, the analyst will be able to make interventions: interpretations, signals, session breaks, etc. Yes indeed, Only if the transference link is established can deeper work be done. Otherwise, the interventions will not have the same effect.

For all this, in the analytical relationship, rigorous neutrality on the part of the analyst, together with a floating listening, which strips him of his subjectivity – of his own affections and history – is what will allow the transfer can be used as a channel for session work. The analyst has to become a kind of blank screen, where the patient can transfer his unconscious material.