ABSTRACT
Sigmund Freud was so concerned with capturing transference as a phenomenon in the world that he failed to notice the worldly nature of transference itself. Indeed, on its surface, the idea of transference seems to presuppose a determinate world across which a transfer occurs. Still, it is in this hothouse of shock, embarrassment, and covering-over that Freud gives birth to the concept of transference. One has to wonder whether the personal turmoil suffered by the analysts has not affected the way they conceptualize what they experience. Freud dubs “transference” the moment in the analysis he did not see coming. One might think therefore that transference will be conceptualized as momentary, abrupt, intrusive, pathological and solely the patient’s production disruptive of the therapeutic action. We are treating transference as a phenomenon and then trying to figure out what its properties are. But phenomena show up in the world, the world itself is not another phenomenon.
