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In her paper entitled 'Clinical Notes on the Nature of Transference in Child Analysis' (Study of the Child, vol. 6) Selma Freiberg concludes that the term 'transference neurosis' cannot be applied to the analysis of children and adolescents, because 'the original neurosis is still centred to a large extent on the sphere of the home and the infantile objects'. In contrast, this paper attempts to show that the transference in child analysis does indeed exist in different forms and can, at certain times, assume the appearance of a transference neurosis. Three stages of the transference are described against the background of the libidinal development of the girl.
In the first stage the libidinal cathexis remained at home, and the transference paved the way towards the acceptance of aggressive and hostile wishes and thoughts directed towards members of the family. It was in the second stage that one could speak of a transference neurosis, because the regressed conflicts, once they had been worked through in relation to the original objects, were repeated in the analysis with the therapist as the central object. They were resolved after they had been interpreted and worked through. In the third stage the transference shifted once again, and now 'contemporary' and current conflicts were simultaneously worked through in many different places in relation to the different objects at home, at school, and with friends, as well as at the clinic.