Transference and Counter Transference in Therapy

Transference and Counter Transference in Therapy as Mediated by the Intervention of Transference Interpretation

Abstract

In this paper, the author describes his two practica at Saint Louis Park Junior High School and the Neighborhood Involvement Program. In his literature review, he explores transference and counter transference, its (a) historical antecedents, (b) Lacanian psychoanalysis, and (c) Lacan's "Presentation on Transference." He concludes the paper with a discussion of his areas of competency, strengths and needs for professional development, and future plans.

The concept of transference is considered one of the most active ingredients within psychotherapy. It is potentially of indisputable importance in developing a well-rounded perspective for the performance of effective psychotherapy. The concept is one of the earliest, most continuously referenced and while widely accepted, it remains equally controversial and disputed within the field of psychotherapy.

Sigmund Freud (1912) concluded, in his seminal paper on the transference, that "it is impossible to destroy anyone in absentia or in effigie." This is a graphical illustration of the exacting power granted the therapist when utilizing the transference. Strachey (1934) further promoted the explication of the statement when he discussed the therapeutic action within psychotherapy is a moving past the mere intellectualization of the client's problem to a point where client and problem meet.

A major component of therapy consists in the individual becoming conscious of the unconscious correlation between his or her impulses and the historical "stereotype plates" that guide, positively or negatively, individuals in navigating their psychic life. The task of psychoanalysis is to retrace the lack within the developmental pathway of these infantile imagos, as they express themselves via a patterned symptomology, or complex.

Hoglend (2004) distinguished between two main types of psychoanalytic interpretation: transference interpretation, which consists of the therapist referencing the ongoing relationship within the therapeutic dyad, and extra-transference interpretation, which references interpersonal patterns or conflicts in the contemporary relationships of the client and are extraneous to the immediate relational dynamic of the dyad.

This full academic paper continues through an extensive literature review (historical origins of transference, contemporary research and transference interpretation, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and Lacan's "Presentation on Transference"), several anonymized clinical case examples, and a closing statement of competencies, theoretical orientation, and future plans.

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By Mathew Quaschnick