TOWARD RECONCEPTUALIZING TRANSFERENCE - THEORETICAL AND CLINICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Two fundamentally different models of transference have emerged, desig nated herein as the displacement and organisation models. The purpose of this paper is to compare the fundamental features of these two mode ls and to contribute to the development and cohesiveness of the organi sation model through the consideration of certain theoretical and clin ical issues. Transference is defined here to refer to the primary orga nising patterns or schemas with which the analysand constructs and ass imilates his or her experience of the analytic relationship. While rep etitive pathological transferential organisations that are based on tr aumatogenic experiences variably impede a person developmentally and i n conflict-resolution, other transferential organisations are forward- looking crystallisations of developmentally-needed experiences (selfob ject transferences). Transference (and countertransference) is viewed as variably co-determined by analysand and analyst. Clinical issues ar e delineated concerning the process of illuminating the transference i n light of the variable contributions of the analyst to the transferen ce, implications for extra-transference, and the differentiation of pr ocess and content to determine the meaning of the transference.