ABSTRACT
Transference is a positive or negative 'fact', an event which can be localized, a sentimental manifestation of the patient's love or hatred for his or her analyst. Transference does not arise out of some mysterious property of affectivity, and even if it does betray itself in the form of agitation, the latter is only meaningful as a function of the dialectical movement within which it occurs. As a 'process', transference will mark the subject's regression from one stage in the formation of his ego to another, from one signifier of the demand, in which his desire, a prisoner in the nets of the signifier, is conveyed, to another signifier. For Lacan, transference as a 'fact' is the identification of the analyst with the images which captivated the subject and sanctioned the alienation of his ego. Transference is therefore identical to the evolution of the cure itself.
