Posted by Penny on July 2, 2003, at 21:49:11
In reply to what's transference?, posted by Slinky on July 2, 2003, at 20:47:30
Depends on who you ask. From my perspective, transference is when you transfer feelings you have for an important person/event in your life onto your therapist or psychiatrist. For example, you may have a great deal of anger from childhood toward your father, and you may find yourself feeling angry toward your male therapist, but supposedly it's really about your dad, not your therapist. Okay, probably not explained as clearly as I'm sure some others will.
My issue with the term "transference" is that I feel like it downplays the importance and reality of the feelings we have toward our caregivers/therapists/doctors/etc. In my case, my therapist is my ideal 'mother' and my psychiatrist is my ideal 'father', and I see that connection in that I am learning to nurture myself through them, the way I would have ideally learned through my actual parents, but I don't think that makes my feelings toward my therapist and psychiatrist any less real.
Not that transference infers that the feelings aren't real - it's just my interpretation. I don't particularly like that terminology.
But transference can be a powerful thing. If one allows it to truly occur, that is.
poster:Penny
thread:238856
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20030529/msgs/238872.html