Psychoanalytic Technique (IX): The analytical handling of transference

Abstract

From a therapeutic standpoint, the analyst’s primary task centers on the management of transference reactions. These phenomena take on various forms and pursue multiple objectives throughout the analytic encounter, yet in every case they reflect the difficulties the patient experiences in daily life and the conflicts rooted in their childhood.

It is the analyst’s mission to break down the barriers that prevent the patient from recognizing the connection between their problematic past and present, thereby enabling the patient’s ego to gain productive mastery over the material that has been resisted.

Analyzing transference thus involves dissolving the original childhood neurosis with the support of theoretical assumptions, technical tools, and the indispensable collaboration of the patient’s healthy ego portions, which manifest through the therapeutic alliance.