ABSTRACT
In order to understand the concept of countertransference, one must have a general understanding of the phenomenon of transference. In this chapter, the author provided an in-depth explanation of transference based on the psychological understandings of Sigmund Freud and Melanie Klein. This chapter begins by explaining the clinical significance of transference from a Freudian perspective, followed by the Kleinian interpretation of the phenomenon. As Freud and Klein argued, transference provides patients with the opportunity to work through unresolved issues related to individuals and/or experiences from the patient’s past through the use of projections. In doing so, patients often tend to relate their memories and impulses to their analyst, thus giving rise to an emotional attachment based on their past experiences. In other words, transference allows for the unconscious content of the patient to be brought into consciousness in order for them to work through an emotional relationship and/or experience through the use of the analyst. Such an experience allows for the re-living of a past experience on the patient’s part with the hopes of experiencing a reparative experience based on their relationship and experience with the analyst. Although transference was initially viewed as resistance and an obstacle to treatment, Freud, and later Klein, described transference as a portal into the patient’s unconscious. In more specific terms, they conclude that transference was necessary to unravel the deeply embedded yet unconscious strain of impulses that guided the actions of patients in their present day.
