Freud on the Dynamics of Transference

Freud on the Dynamics of Transference

I decided to read Freud's 1912 "Dynamics of Transference" after reading the following statement in Cozolino's "The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy" where he talked about the projective hypothesis. There Cozolino wrote:

"Despite a conscious awareness that something may be wrong, the hidden layers of neural processing continue to organize the world based on the prior experiences that shaped them. As we will see in later chapters, the neural circuitry involved with fear has a tenacious memory and can invisibly influence conscious awareness for a lifetime. Part of psychodynamic therapy is an exploration and uncovering of this unconscious organization of experience. Freud’s projective hypothesis described the process by which our brains create and organize the world around us. 

As the clarity of a situation decreases, the brain naturally generates structure and projects it onto the world. The way we organize and understand ambiguous stimuli gives us clues about the architecture of the hidden layers of neural processing (how our unconscious organizes the world). From the projective hypothesis came the invention of projective tests such as Rorschach’s ink blots, free association, and an emphasis on the importance of dreams as the “royal road to the unconscious.”

As part of the projective hypothesis, psychodynamic therapists often provide minimal information about themselves, allowing the client to project onto them implicit (unconscious) memories from past relationships. This form of projection, transference, results in the client placing expectations and emotions from earlier relationships on the therapist, which allows them to be experienced and worked through firsthand. It is through this transference that early relationships for which we have no conscious recollection are brought fully into therapy. Freud felt that the evocation and resolution of the transference was a core component of a successful analysis. In Freud’s words, only transference renders “the invaluable service of making the patient’s buried and forgotten love emotions actual and manifest” (Freud, 1975, Chapter 7)."

Freud's "The Dynamics of Transference" will be found by hitting this link.

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