The Concept of Erotized Transference

The concept of erotized transference is differentiated as a subspecies of erotic transference. Though more common in patients with impaired ego function, erotized transference is not limited solely to these patients. The erotization may recede and recur with transference vicissitudes. Analyzability depends upon resources of

the total personality and capacity for ego growth. The significance and meaning of erotized transference is explored, with special reference to regressive repetition of childhood seduction and masturbation, and a seductive style of defense. The analytic situation is a seduction or danger to be warded off by seduction. Defense against hostility, homosexuality, and narcissistic injury is prominent. Parental seduction and denial of complicity are models of seductive style and superego corruption. The sense of reality is frequently altered and the more severe cases display defective reality testing and object relations. Narcissistic and preoedipal problems are formative influences, sometimes with an oedipal façade. The narcissism of the "privileged character" may be expressed in insistent favoritism as an exception. Sadomasochistic exploitation may be disguised as erotic conquest. Erotized transference can also be viewed as a distorted attempt to master trauma via active repetition. In the more benign cases, oedipal passions and disappointment may be the core conflict. Erotized transference is not necessarily ego syntonic in depth, and can be anchored in countertransference responses.