Characteristic aspects of transference

Abstract

All analysts, regardless of their school of thought, emphasize the importance of transference and its significance in the analyst-analysand relationship. Transference can be broadly defined as the set of intense, inappropriate, changeable, infantile, and ambivalent feelings that the patient experiences toward the analyst, originating unconsciously from significant figures in the patient's childhood and relived in the present through the analyst. According to Adler, one of the typical aspects that characterize patient-analyst transference is the above-below polarity, dictated by the resistance-laden attitude that the individual develops in the analyst-patient relationship. Such resistance stems from the fear that the analyst will somehow force the patient to change their lifestyle, which has been habitual and therefore reassuring until that point. It becomes important to establish an equal relationship based on solidarity, social feeling, and respect for the individual as a unique and irreplaceable person. The positions on transference of Freud, Jung, Horney, and the affinities with Adler's thinking are presented