transference
TRANS-fur-uns
/ˈtræns.fər.əns/
The redirection of feelings and expectations from past significant relationships onto a current person, especially a therapist.
Transference operates unconsciously; patients often react to figures of authority as if they were parent figures from early childhood.
The story behind the word. Formed from Latin 'trans-' (across) and 'ferre' (to carry). Freud developed the psychological concept of Übertragung ('carrying over'), which English translators named 'transference' to explain how patients carry emotional baggage across time into current interactions.
Word relationships
- displacement: Displacement transfers an emotion to a substitute target, whereas transference specifically shifts past relationship patterns onto present individuals.
- redirection: Redirection is a general term for pointing something in a new direction.
- objectivity: Objectivity views a person as they truly are without projecting past relationship dynamics.
Commonly confused with
- projection: Projection casts your current unwanted traits onto someone else; transference projects past relationship dynamics onto a current person.
Word family
- transfer (verb): To convey or shift feelings or objects from one person to another.
- transferential (adjective): Relating to or characterized by psychological transference.
Collocations
- negative transference
- positive transference
- paternal transference
- counter-transference
Idioms & expressions
- carrying old baggage
- reliving the past
Example sentences
- "The analyst recognized transference when the patient began seeking his approval as if he were her strict father." Psychoanalytic practice context
- "His irrationally intense hostility toward his manager was fueled by transference from a childhood trauma." Workplace relationship context
Memory hook
TRANSFER-ENCE is TRANSFERRING emotions from your past onto a new person. Carrying past parent dynamics across into present relationships.
When not to use
Do not use merely to mean physically transferring items or data from one place to another.
Fun facts
- When therapists direct their own unresolved feelings back onto the patient, it is called 'counter-transference'.
Related words
Explore more words
subconscious, attachment, regression, codependent, intuition, empathy
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