The Transference Phenomenon In Psychoanalytic Therapy^†

Abstract

The significance of the transference phenomenon impressed Freud so profoundly that he continued through the years to develop his ideas about it. His classical observations on the patient Dora formed the basis for his first formulations of this concept. He says, “What are transferences? They are the new editions or facsimiles of the tendencies and phantasies which are aroused and made conscious during the progress of the analysis; but they have this peculiarity, which is characteristic for their species, that they replace some earlier person by the person of the physician. To put it another way: a whole series of psychological experiences are revived, not as belonging to the past, but as applying to the person of the physician at the present moment.”¹

Notes

² Reference footnote 1: 2:321.

³ Reference footnote 1: 2 :316.

⁴ Refernce footnote 1; p.322

⁵ Refernce footnore 1; p.319

⁶ Freud Sigmund Gesammelle Werke; London Image (1940) 12:23

⁷ Horney, Karen, New ways in Psychoanalysis; New York, Norton, 1939 (313 pp.)

⁸ Sherif Muzafer A.F., The psychology of social Norms; New york, Harper, 1936 (xii and 210 pp)

⁹ Sullivan, Harry Stack, ConceptionR of Modern Psychiatry. PSYCHIATRY (1940) 3:1·117.

¹⁰ Fromm, Erich, Lectures on Ideas and Ideologies presented at the New School for Social Research, N. Y. C. 1943.

¹¹ Fromm-Reichmann, Frieda, Transference Problems in Schizophrenics. Psychoanalytic Quart.(1939) 8:412-426.

¹² Reference footnote 1; p. 387.

¹³ Reference footnote 6; p. 226.

¹⁴ White, Robert W., A Preface to the Theory of Hypnotism. J. Abnormal and Social Psychol. (1941) 36:477-505.

¹⁵ Maslow, A. H., and Mittelmann, Bela, Principles of Abnormal Psychology; New York, Harper, 1941 (x and 638 pp.).

¹⁶ Freud, Sigmund, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego; London, The International Psycho-Analytical Press, 1922 (134 pp.).

¹⁷ Ferenczi, Sandor, Sex in Psycho-Analysis; Boston, Badger, 1916 (338 pp.)-in particular, Introjection and Transference.

¹⁸ I am indebted to Erich Fromm for suggestions in the following discussion.

¹⁹ Underhill, Ruth, Social Organization of the Papago Indians [Columbia University Contributions to Anthropology: Vol. 30]; New York, Columbia University Press, 1939 (be and 280 pp,) .

²⁰ Hull, Clark L., Hypnosis and Suggestibility; New York, Appleton-Century, 1933 (xii and 416 pp.).