IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER - HELMHOLTZIAN PERCEPTION AND THE ORIGINS OF FREUD 1900 THEORY OF TRANSFERENCE

Freud's 1900 theory of transference was indebted to the convergence of philosophy and physiology found in nineteenth-century theories of vis ual perception. The author maps out the post-Kantian philosophical and German physiological currents that gave rise to Hermann von Helmholtz 's influential work on perception, and proposes that Freud's 1900 theo ry of transference was a creative synthesis of novel notions like unco nscious wishing and psychic defense with a Helmholtzian model of visua l illusion.