Transference

## 1. Etymology

**Transference** (Latin *transferre*, to carry across) in Jung names a **particular case of [projection](/index/projection/)**—the unconscious emotional bond of analysand toward analyst. Related: countertransference; rapport; [imago](/index/imago/); personal vs archetypal components.

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## 2. Plain summary

**Transference** is what happens when leftover feelings and images—often parental, sometimes archetypal (healer, devil, mana)—land on the analyst. It can feel like love, hate, awe, or resistance. Jung treated it as unavoidable in a thorough analysis and as therapeutically useful when recognized, not as a mere erotic leftover from childhood.

Some projections can be taken back into oneself once their subjective origin is seen; others move from earlier objects onto the doctor. When the projections are seen through, that special rapport called transference ends and ordinary individual relationship can begin. Positive and negative forms both matter—what helps one temperament can trap another. Related to [coniunctio](/index/coniunctio/), [shadow](/index/shadow/), and the dialectic of analyst and patient.

**Examples (exhaustive house list for this Index lemma — common transference-related figures and motifs named across Jung’s essays and standard Jungian lexica; not a claim that Jung’s CW contains only these):**
unconscious emotional bond analysand→analyst; special case of [projection](/index/projection/); contents that resist integration and transfer to the doctor; parent of opposite sex / sibling [imago](/index/imago/); positive (affection, respect) vs negative (hostility, resistance); infantile-rebel vs infantile-obedient meanings of polarity; not merely infantile-erotic fantasy; creative/purpose element after reductive dissolve; contradictory Jung statements (inevitable feature vs work against it); personal vs archetypal components; magical healer / threatening devil; alchemy as metaphor for mutual process; countertransference as organ of information; syntonic vs illusory countertransference (Fordham); content analysis (symbols) vs process analysis (transference); [coniunctio](/index/coniunctio/) / [opposites](/index/opposites/) in the vessel; [shadow](/index/shadow/) held by the analyst; [individuation](/index/individuation/) via working within the bond.

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## 3. Academic elucidation


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## 4. Lexicon


> Transference. A particular case of projection, used to describe the unconscious, emotional bond that arises in the analysand toward the analyst. … Unconscious contents are invariably projected at first upon concrete persons and situations. … others resist integration, and although they may be detached from their original objects, they thereupon transfer themselves to the doctor. … Once the projections are recognized as such, the particular form of rapport known as the transference is at an end, and the problem of individual relationship begins. … A transference may be either positive or negative… Jung did not regard the transference merely as a projection of infantile-erotic fantasies.

(Sharp, 1991, p. [provisional — unverified])


> Jung’s attitude to transference shows wide variance. On the one hand, transference is seen as the central feature of analysis, in any case unavoidable, and, in its blend of the sublime and the revolting, of great therapeutic usefulness… On the other hand, transference is sometimes conceived of as nothing but erotic and as a ‘hindrance’… Jung separated transference into its personal and archetypal components… Personal transference included… parents… individual potential and his shadow… Archetypal transference… magical healer or a threatening devil…


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## 5. CW concordance — sample, not exhaustive


> The transference phenomenon is an inevitable feature of every thorough analysis… The transference therefore consists in a number of projections which act as a substitute for a real psychological relationship. They create an apparent relationship and this is very important… Hence a sudden severance of the transference is always attended by extremely unpleasant and even dangerous consequences…

> Practical analysis has shown that unconscious contents are invariably projected at first upon concrete persons and situations. Many projections can ultimately be integrated back into the individual once he has recognized their subjective origin; others resist integration, and although they may be detached from their original objects, they thereupon transfer themselves to the doctor. Among these contents the relation to the parent of opposite sex plays a particularly important part…
(Jung, 1946/1966, CW 16, pp. 169–170, ¶357)

> The transference is in itself no more than a projection of unconscious contents. At first the so-called superficial contents of the unconscious are projected, as can be seen from symptoms, dreams, and fantasies… Then he appears more in the role of the father… Sometimes the doctor has a maternal significance… All these fantasy projections are founded on personal memories.
(Jung, 1928/1966, CW 7, pp. 98–99, ¶98)

> …in the same way that a transference is answered by a counter-transference from the analyst when it projects a content of which he is unconscious but which nevertheless exists in him. The counter-transference is then just as useful and meaningful, or as much of a hindrance, as the transference of the patient… Like the transference, the counter-transference is compulsive, a forcible tie, because it creates a “mystical” or unconscious identity with the object.
(Jung, 1916/1969, CW 8, pp. 353–354, ¶519)


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**See also:** [projection](/index/projection/); [imago](/index/imago/); [coniunctio](/index/coniunctio/); [shadow](/index/shadow/); [anima](/index/anima/); [animus](/index/animus/); [opposites](/index/opposites/); [complex](/index/complex/); [individuation](/index/individuation/); [puer aeternus](/index/puer-aeternus/); [compensation](/index/compensation/). [dreams](/index/dreams/). [countertransference](/index/countertransference/). *(Queued — not yet linked: alchemy.)*

## References

Jung, C. G. (1966). The psychology of the transference. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), *The collected works of C. G. Jung* (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (2nd ed., Vol. 16, pp. 169–170, ¶357). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1946)

Jung, C. G. (1966). The relations between the ego and the unconscious. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), *The collected works of C. G. Jung* (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (2nd ed., Vol. 7, pp. 98–99, ¶98). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1928)

Jung, C. G. (1966). The therapeutic value of abreaction. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), *The collected works of C. G. Jung* (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (2nd ed., Vol. 16, pp. 136–137, ¶¶283–284). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1921)

Jung, C. G. (1969). General aspects of dream psychology. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), *The collected works of C. G. Jung* (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (2nd ed., Vol. 8, pp. 353–354, ¶519). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1916)

Samuels, A., Shorter, B., & Plaut, F. (1986). *A critical dictionary of Jungian analysis*. Routledge.

Sharp, D. (1991). *Jung lexicon: A primer of terms & concepts*. Inner City Books.


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