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

December 19th 2024

emotional unconscious

that aspect of the nonconscious mind that consists of unreportable emotional or motivational states. It is suggested that such states may influence thought and action without the individual becoming consciously aware of them. The emotional unconscious is comparable to, but distinct from, the cognitive unconscious, which consists of implicit percepts, memories, and thoughts. The extent to which an individual can be said to have emotions without being conscious of them, however, is controversial. [proposed by U.S. cognitive psychologist John F. Kihlstrom (1948– )]