The concept of transference is issued from Freud's observation that the sentiments the analysant had for him, 'falling in love' in this case, had nothing to do with himself of with the situation. He associated it with the re-manifestation of childhood sentiments and fantasies towards the parent in the analysis room. He thus discovered two things at the same time: frustration brings regression, and a past figure can be attributed to the therapist (which was called later 'projection', a word somehow misleading). Later, transference came to mean various things, and it was found also that it worked both ways and that sentiments of the analyst for the client had to do with the past and not the present situation. That reverse occurence is called countertransference.
Now in the structural therapy context, we shall use the following definition.
Transference is the phenomenon of direct transfer of psychic contents from a person to another. It can be purely psychic (not coming from words nor body communication, nor even from subliminal clues).
It occurs at all times between any two individuals with a variable intensity and direction depending of the individuals.
This transfer of contents is usually followed by reactions, emotions and sentiments exactly as if those contents were actual and manifest.
In other words, transference and countertransference is direct psychic communication. It occurs not only in analysis settings but in all life situations: between parents and children, between consorts, etc. It has also been called: transpsychic phenomena, transsubjectivity. There are some rules with respect to its intensity.
Figure Transference_1
The intensity of transference is an inverse function of the emotional 'distance' between the individuals, a direct function of their sensivity (response aptitude).
It is maximum in symbiotic situations.
We call here symbiosis the phenomenon of creating one 'psyche' from two psychic systems.
Emission: The transferential pressure is a direct function of the intensity of the need (desire) for the other one. It is maximum when imprinting motivations are active (need for vitalising, need for symbiosis, need for freedom, depending on the transferential situation).
However, from the above, the main flow is from the individual with the larger need to the one with the lesser need, or from the one with the more intense, more active psychic contents to the other one. It is usually not conscious.
Reception: The reception of the transference contents is a function of one's permeability to the input of contents from another one.
Figure Transference_2
Which means that the ability to feel and 'read' transferential contents depends on the aptitude to react subliminally without repression to external transferential pressure.
Transference has a structuring value during the symbiotic phase.
Transference phenomena produces a bond between the two psychic systems, and a channel of intense communication, therefore creating a new psychic unit. The bond may be weak or strong, durable, permanent or temporary. Weak bonds are akin to 'distance', strong bonds are akin to 'closeness', very strong bonds produce 'fusion' or 'symbiosis'.
The need for the other one can be viewed from two complementary planes:
Figure Transference_3
The new unit thus created may have a lesser aptitude or potential, and is therefore unstable, or a higher aptitude and is therefore stable.
Stability: The stability of a transferentially bonded psychic unit is a direct function of its potential value, its functional potency or aptitude.
+ addition = simple juxtaposition (null or weak psychic bond)
⊕ agregation = new system construction (strong psychic bond)
Stable if Aptitude (A⊕ B) > Aptitude (A + B)
Unstable if Aptitude (A⊕ B) < Aptitude (A + B)
Metastable states: Metastability may exist if there is an effort barrier for the rupture of the bond.
Unstable states: Unstability may exist when there are two metastable states separated with a weak effort barrier.
Figure Transference_4
A well known exemple is the symbiosis created at birth: an efficient psychic unit is formed by the 'bonding imprint', both for the child and for the mother, where a very intense direct psychic communication bond is made, giving to the neonate the full potency of the mother and thus creating safety for the baby (need for contact, shelter against the intrusion of the outer world, knowledge and functional ability in the outer world) and fulfilment for the mother (filling of the female psychic womb by the baby). The fact that the mothers know at all time what happens to the neonate or infant is the result of transference. Conversely, the child knwows at all times what the mother does and thinks.
Acting out: In a dual system (two psychic units bonded by transference), the more reactive of the two subunits will act out the tensions of the system. Release will be sought through the two subunits, but will only succeed to manifest through the more susceptible of the two.
The more susceptible is the one which has the lesser repression and/or effort tensions. A short table in the order of fluidity to rigidity may look like: 1. neonate, 2. infant, 3. child, 4. psychotic character (schizoid type or hysterical type), 5. impulsive character, 6. hysterical character (neurotic), 7. anal expulsive character, 8. controlled obsessional character (neurotic), 9. hypercontrolled (psychotic paranoid type), 10. autistic (shell type or amiboid type).
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