ABSTRACT
Sigmund Freud speaks only of the transference love of the female patient for her psychoanalyst. However, observation shows that transference love may also be found in the case of a male patient and a female analyst, as well as in a patient of either sex toward the analyst of the same sex. For both the girl and the boy, the first love object is the mother, while the other varieties are the result of the vicissitudes of the primary oedipal drama and their resignification through the resolution of the Oedipus complex. The chapter considers the characteristics of psychoanalytic technique that lead to the emergence of what ultimately constitutes transference love. A central theme for understanding the emergence of transference love in the psychoanalytic treatment is the analyst’s role. Although transference is always in part a resistance, resistance is particularly intense in the case of transference love.
