Summary
A summary of what has preceded takes as its point of departure the frame of reference of psychoanalysis. A neurosis, being the result of an inner conflict, can be mitigated by forces acting in a certain way on that conflict. In psychotherapy, the main forces used are: (1) the patient's transferences to the physician; and (2) the patient's capacity for testing reality. Wherever possible, the therapist manipulates the transference to mitigate the conflict and increase the patient's ability to recognize reality. Interpretations are given on appropriate levels (conscious and preconscious, rather than unconscious); and insight is aimed at the patient's understanding of new and more appropriate relationships, rather than in the attaching of the emotion at its deepest level to the idea at that level. The foundation of all psychotherapy is the transference (no matter what else we may choose to call it). As Freud has said: “We may treat a neurotic any way we like, he always treats himself psychotherapeutically, that is to say, with transferences” (quoted by Ferenczi5).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Hinsie, Leland E., and Shatzky, Jacob: Psychiatric Dictionary. Oxford University Press. New York. 1940.
Lehrman, Samuel R.: The psychotherapy of hospitalization.Psychiat. Quart., April 1939.
Levine, Maurice: Psychotherapy in General Practice. Macmillan. New York. 1942.
Freud, Sigmund: Fragment of an analysis of a case of hysteria (1905). In: Collected Papers, Vol. III. Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis. London. 1943.
Ferenczi, Sandor: Introjection and transference. In: Contributions to Psychoanalysis. The Gorham Press. Boston. 1916.
Witmer, Helen Leland (editor): Teaching Psychotherapeutic Medicine. Commonwealth Fund. New York. 1947.
Schilder, Paul: Psychotherapy. Norton. New York. 1938.
Kaufman, M. Ralph: The concept of transference in relation to case work. Paper read before the Rhode Island Conference of Social Work, Newport, R. I., September 13, 1941.
Freud, Sigmund: Further recommendations in the technique of psychoanalysis: recollection, repetition and working through (1914). In: Collected Papers, Vol. II. Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis. London. 1943.
Freud, Sigmund: On psychotherapy. In: Collected Papers, Vol. I. Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis. London. 1943.
Ferenczi, Sandor: Stages in the development of the sense of reality (1913). In: Contributions to Psychoanalysis. The Gorham Press. Boston. 1916.
Fenichel, Otto: The Psychoanalytic Theory of the Neuroses. Norton. New York. 1946.
Kaufman, M. Ralph: Factors in psychotherapy: psychoanalytic evaluation.Psychiat. Quart., January 1941.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Read at a meeting of the Mohawk Valley Neuropsychiatric Society, Utica, N. Y., October 11, 1948.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lehrman, S.R. Transference in psychotherapy. Psych Quar 24, 532–542 (1950). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02227109
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02227109