Transference in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

Transference is the repetition of learned interpersonal patterns in new situations, and in psychodynamic psychotherapy with the therapist specifically. Many times patients repeat these cycles unconsciously, and one goal of therapy is to raise awareness of them. Transference has been empirically demonstrated in numerous ways, including higher frequencies of certain perceptions or behaviors exhibited by patients in their relationships; similarities across patients' descriptions of others; or activation of autographical memory and emotion centers in the brain. Children as young as three show characteristic ways of representing self and others that are exaggeratedly positive and include a more limited range of relationships and developmental themes than do adults. While transference is not inherently problematic, maladaptive or overly rigid application of interpersonal patterns has been correlated with greater symptoms and difficulty functioning. Patients experience transference to the therapist even before treatment begins, and these representations are highly predictive of the strength of the therapeutic alliance that develops later in therapy. About one-fifth of the content during sessions is transference toward the therapist. Negative transference emerges in the middle of therapy, allowing for observation of these patterns in the relationship with the therapist and for opportunities to change them.