Transference in Psychotherapy

Transference in psychotherapy is when a patient’s feelings for someone are redirected to the therapist, often as an erotic attraction, but also as rage, hatred, mistrust, parentification (parent-child reversal in developmentally inappropriate roles), extreme dependence, or giving the therapist a god-like status. Freud initially believed transference was patient resistance, but came to see analysis of transference as the primary work of therapy. The focus in psychodynamic psychotherapy is therapist and patient recognizing and exploring the transference relationship and its meaning. Since it happens on an unconscious level, therapists use transference to reveal unresolved conflicts patients have with childhood figures. Also see Countertransference