ABSTRACT
In the early days transference was simply the acting out of a drama with a figure from the past in the form of the analyst. The transference is conceived in terms of containment, to use the term that has gained currency from the ideas of Wilfred Bion and later Kleinians; or in terms of holding, to use Donald Winnicott’s idea. Psycho-analysts attempt to see the infant in the patient. This is not to ignore the adult. The infant’s perception is that he has projected something intolerable into his object, but the object was capable of containing it and dealing with it. In the analytic setting, the psycho-analyst addresses the distress that is being put across by the patient wherever that may be located by the patient. From the analyst’s point of view the location is inside the patient. A contemporary view of transference and counter-transference relies on the idea of containing.
