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transference

n. in psychoanalysis, a patient’s displacement or projection onto the analyst of those unconscious feelings and wishes originally directed toward important individuals, such as parents, in the patient’s childhood. It is posited that this process brings repressed material to the surface where it can be reexperienced, studied, and worked through to discover the sources of a patient’s current neurotic difficulties and to alleviate their harmful effects. Although the theoretical aspects of the term are specific to psychoanalysis, transference has a recognized role in various other types of therapeutic encounter, including counseling and short-term dynamic psychotherapy. The term’s broader meaning—an unconscious repetition of earlier behaviors and their projection onto new subjects—is acknowledged as applying to all human interactions. See also analysis of transference; countertransference; negative transference; positive transference.

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Psychology term of the day

October 10th 2024

military stress factors

military stress factors

circumstances that potentially affect the number of military personnel that become stress casualties, including the nature of the operation in which they are involved; the intensity of the conflict, the number of battle casualties occurring, and the size, cohesion, and leadership of the unit in which they are serving.