Transference - "the most powerful therapeutic instrument" in Freud's psychoanalysis
Transference is arguably Freud’s most important development in the theory of psychoanalysis – “a powerful concept, speaking to the essence of the unconscious—the past hidden within the present—and of continuity—the present in continuum with the past” (Schwaber, 2002 cited in Heller, 2005, p.206). Classically, transference is considered to be a phenomenon which occurs when the analysand places, or in other words, transfers past unconscious conflicts and fantasies onto the analyst by including him into existing unconscious representations. This is exemplified by cases whereby the analysand unconsciously perspectives the analyst to embody feelings and ideas which in the past belonged to a significant person, such as a parent figure. As transferences become apparent during the course of psychotherapy, they both present a challenge which can halt progress, and are that which constitute the necessary “terrain” (Laplanche and Pontalis, 1973, p.455) of analysis. In its developed form, Freud (1923) regarded transference as “the most powerful therapeutic instrument” when it’s in the hands of the physician, and simultaneously a “weapon [of the] resistance” (p.247) which can hinder the therapeutic process. This essay will outline what is meant by transference in psychotherapy via some of the developments that the concept has undergone in Freud’s understanding, and why it’s a key mechanism in psychotherapy with reference to it’s positive and negative implications throughout.
Firstly, transference is a significant, if not crucial part of psychotherapeutic treatment. First believed to be an insignificant part of treatment, over the years, as other concepts shaped Freud’s overall theory of psychoanalysis, transference became a key process. The appearance of the transference, the manner in which it presents itself and in turn the analyst’s interpretation of it is the process which allows for the understanding and resolution of unconscious material which overshadows illness. The very instance of transference and the analysis thereof is the groundwork for resolution, and consequentially the treatment during psychotherapy (Laplanche and Pontalis, 1973). It is contradictory in nature as it serves both the analysands resistances to treatment, and in this way paves way for the analyst to explore what exactly hides behind these resistances. The concept of transference has undergone important developments throughout its years in Freud’s literature which are important to highlight as they eventually shaped the therapeutic process in its entirety. The development of the concept begins in the context of difficulties observed as arising in the therapist-patient relationship in Freud’s early work Studies on Hysteria (1895). In evaluating the pressure technique for analysis used at the time, transference appears amongst other resistances as one of the ways in which the technique fails.
Freud (1895) explains, transference arises as a difficulty and an obstacle, a resistance though a ‘false connection’ which hinders treatment and needs to be resolved. Transferences hint towards specific unconscious impulses which need to be unveiled and interpreted as they were characterised by attaching elements of themselves to the object of the analyst, affecting the therapeutic process. He illustrates this with an example of how during analysis a patient felt a desire to receive a kiss from Freud and was subsequently alarmed herself at this desire. She had felt this desire in the past – for a man to make a bold move and unexpectedly lean in for a kiss, a desire that she had repressed years ago. After this desire arose towards Freud in treatment, the patient was alarmed, not able to sleep; on return to therapy could not progress at all, hence clearly displaying an interference with treatment which is noted as an unconscious resistance. In resolving the transference, it was observed that this desire was transferred into the present moment from the past as a pathological recollection. Having nothing to do with Freud himself, the desire was prompted by the context in which he was the dominant figure of her consciousness, and attached itself to him as if it were a symptom in itself (Etchegoyen, 2005). Therefore, it was labelled as a false-connection to do with the past and the present, which acted as a resistance and thus was one of the obstacles which was needed to be overcome for treatment to proceed.
The concept is thus introduced to explain this false connection made by the patient around the idea that instances like this interfere in treatment because they hinder the doctor-patient relationship which is necessary for treatment. The setting of psychoanalysis is indeed intimate; private ideas are shared and discussed, and thoughts relating to the patient’s dependence, or those of an erotic nature can be directed to the analyst (Lear, 2005). In these initial observations, transference being a newfound aspect of treatment is not taken to be essential, but rather a peculiarity which hints towards specific unconscious impulses. And so, here Freud notes how the past wish is unreasonably attached to his person in the present and thus explains it as a process which involves desire and memory, but not in any depth that would directly link them (Etchegoyen, 2005).
Later, Freud makes the connection in his Interpretation of Dreams (Etchogoyen, 2005). Freud here presents a brilliant illustration of the relationship between unconscious desires and memory, which in dreams by their nature exists in the preconscious in the form of “day’s residues” (Strachey, 2010, p.562). It’s important to note that transference here is brought in from his understanding of the “mental life of neurotics” to examine the dream process. However, in examining dreams using the concept, further development is consequently made in understanding how transference works in analytic sessions. Whereas it was first developed to explain an inter-personal obstacle in treatment, here he recognizes that transference involves displacement of meaning, how affect of a wish takes on another form, remaining the same in its significance but presented much differently to the point where it's unrecognisable (Etchegoyen, 2005). His understanding of transference in the clinical sense was likely further expanded on by investigation into dream processes.
Here, Freud understood transference to be a form of “displacement of affect” (Lapanche and Pontalis, 1973, p.457) whereby the unconscious material presents itself veiled by the preconscious remnants of the previous day. The unconscious processes such as desires, impulses, though-connections are inaccessible in waking life, however, in dreams they become redirected onto a substitute target in the preconscious mind in terms of their affect and take form in the residues of the previous day – the preconscious material. Indeed, the unconscious impulses by principle cannot entirely appear in the preconscious, so they do so partially – in their affect. The impulse establishes a connection with an idea that already exists in the preconscious by covering itself up with it by displacing it in affect, therefore having the same ‘weight’ or seeming just as significant, despite being different things (Strachey, 2010). Trivial dreams that appear to be insignificant are thus anything but. Freud postulated that because of this transference, all dreams carry significance. They only appear insignificant on the surface because what is presented in them are insignificant residual details from the previous day.
In responding to Stumpell’s criticism, further explanation on how memory is involved in the transference is given, which likely adds to the understanding of transference in the clinical sense also. Old, insignificant material appears both in dreams and in thinking because the material which is significant in affect was displaced earlier in life, becomes fixated in memory, and carried on into the future where it re-emerges in dreams and relationships. The elements onto which unconscious material is transferred can also be modified to have characteristics of it. The material gets displaced in value, and so insignificant-seeming dream content is indeed unconscious material of significance, which presents itself in the form of every-day-like elements. Here Freud compares the significant unconscious material being covered up with trivial matters to "wolves in sheep's clothing" (Strachey, 2010, p.205).
Shortly after this observation, a postscript of an analysis of ‘Dora’ was published in which Freud forms his most developed approach to transference so far. He recognizes that transference doesn't involve individual and very particular feelings like the desire for a kiss observed in the Studies of Hysteria. Rather, a more whole picture of the situation is involved, which he calls "a special class of mental structures" (Freud, 1905, p.116). He importantly notes how no new symptoms of neurosis can be seen during analytic treatment; instead, the potential of the neurosis transforms itself to serve these new mental structures (Freud, 1905). During the course of analysis Freud became interwoven in Dora's already existing psychological constructions which for her represented another man, by placing Freud in that frame of understanding. Rather than being an odd miscalculation, characteristics which belonged to Freud likely reminded Dora of the other man and so Freud was seen though the same mental lens in which Dora saw him, thus transferring her feelings onto Freud (Lear, 2005). Freud encountered transference as an inevitable part of treatment which is utilized by the analysand to hide unconscious material, however, after resolving it the analysand had become aware of what was being hidden. Therefore, it is a paradox – both a weapon against, and also a tool for treatment. "Transference, which seems ordained to be the greatest obstacle to psychoanalysis, becomes its most powerful ally, if its presence can be detected each time and explained to the patient" (Freud, 1905e, p.117). He explains he couldn’t do this in time with Dora and so the analysis came to a premature end.
The paradoxical nature of transference and how it can be utilised is realised by Freud in its conception as a resistance, albeit one which is useful for the treatment (1912) if cleverly utilised by the analyst. Transference, in the form of resistance as a pathological process begins to form when the potential for libido to be directed towards outward reality is diminished. Here Freud uses Jung's idea of introversion whereby libido is directed towards the inner world rather than outward reality, therefore having a greater potential to bring infantile fantasies into consciousness. Introversion here is the bedrock of neuroses and pathological processes as regression and infantile conflict contributes to the pathological process which begins developing at the point of introversion of the libido.
Bringing the unconscious into consciousness, thus reversing this process of introversion is a component of psychotherapy which the analyst tries to do. By turning outward what was being turned inward, the analyst becomes the target of the repression in the form of resistance just as the analysands own resistance prevents repressed fantasies surfacing. In attempt to reverse the processes which form the pathologies in the first place, the analyst faces those very processes which resist his work in the form of transferences (Etchegoyen, 2005), thus transferences are conceptualised as a form of resistance. The transferences come to life in an immediate fashion to the analyst and can be utilised against the resistance to reveal what is repressed. By contextualising the unconscious desires behind transferences, the analyst reveals them so that they can be realised as real and constituting a part of the analysands history. And so, while it is a resistance, it is also an opportunity for realisation and thereafter, working-through, which establishes the cure.
Transference is later conceptualised as a form of repetition, something which is distinct from memory (1914). Having a developed position on psychoanalysis, Freud writes in Remembering, Repeating and Working-through: “one cannot overcome an enemy who is absent or not within range” (Freud, 1914, p.152). Transferences, used as a tool, help the analysand realise symptoms as not to be condemned, rather they must be acknowledged as one’s own and bring their deepest origin to the surface for reconciliation. This is done through analysis, which constitutes the reconciliation of forgotten memories.
What is ‘forgotten' involves screen memories – insignificant memories which have displaced significant memories to compromise between repressed elements and ego defences. This can be seen in the way that repressed childhood memories are revealed in dreams and can be understood later in life though interpretation. ‘Forgotten’ is that which is unreachable in the unconscious and cannot be vocalised and so it is unknowingly being repeated in action, which happens in daily life as well as the analytic situation. Attitudes and behaviours are characterised by this compulsive repetition. Repetition can involve “inhibitions and unserviceable attitudes … pathological character-traits” (p.151) which exist in the present, after having formed in the past as ego defences. Transference in analysis acts as a repetition and an aid to resist remembering. Unconscious material (such as that related to parents) will be acted out unconsciously onto the analyst as resistance to remembering. One way this can hinder treatment is by the analysand seeing the resistance as validating the symptoms; in light of something being repressed one may assume that it ought to be that way. Transference is used instrumentally to curb the compulsion to repeat by making it a motive to remember. In treatment compulsions are allowed to be acted out, and they play out in the transference thus displaying to the analysand what impulses lie behind it. In this way the symptoms can be given a transference meaning, the neurosis be called transference-neurosis and consequently can be cured (1914). Therefore, transference makes up a liminal, provisional space which can be used to transfer from illness to wellness. Repetition is halted by the analyst by bringing into consciousness what is to be repeated by the analysand and so rather than being repeated, material which is behind the repeating actions can be remembered (Freud, 1914). Here, the conceptual resolution of transference is very close to the resolution a neurosis, which makes it a central concept for psychoanalysis. However, a transference presents itself, positively or negatively, the fact that it is utilised as a resistance is outweighed by the light of its opportunity for the therapist to utilise it as the "most powerful therapeutic instrument" (1923). It is a situation whereby the existence, strength, and permanence of unconscious wishes arise to the surface and thus allow the analyst to examine these carefully as hidden conflicting elements that can be resolved.
In summary, the emergence of a transference was thought of as non-complex incongruence in thinking, in which the analysand assigns some infantile material onto the analyst, not bearing much to the analysis but an inter-personal obstacle. Alongside Freud’s other developments in the study of the unconscious it was later developed from being an inter-personal issue in analysis, to being a psychological process which aids resistance in a complex way. Freud understood resistances as aiding pathologies and so transference was found to lead to the origin of the formation of unconscious impulses which form pathological symptoms. In the process of attempting to reverse pathological symptoms, transference was encountered as both a powerful resistance, and the very evidence that unconscious material hidden behind it. Noticing, interpreting, and resolving the transference thus lays the groundwork for successful psychoanalysis. To conclude, although transference appeared in Freud’s understanding at first as an obstacle in psychotherapy which hinders progress in the form of a resistance directed at the analyst, throughout the years it became a central mechanism of psychotherapy which can lead to successful treatment.
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