The Basic Transference

This term, suggested by Catherine Parat (1976), concerns that part of the relationship with the analyst that is not reducible to the transference movements classically developed in a transference neurosis. She describes it as cathexis by the patient of the person of the analyst. This cathexis is tinged with trust, and is the basic background against which projections and positive and negative transference movements develop. Basic transference has often been likened to the notion of therapeutic alliance with a “healthy” or “rational” ego. However, the term “transference” makes a difference here, as it places the emphasises on a cathexis involving the transference/countertransference economy. From the point of view of the countertransference, the basic transference nourishes the feeling in the analyst that it is possible to work with this or that patient. It supports the benevolence that colours neutrality. From the patient's point of view, it is fuelled by narcissistic resources and a tender, non-eroticised instinctual drive current, but also by the introjection of qualities that belong to the analyst and his function. Even when the patient seems to accept the setting, the trust necessary for the development of speech in analysis is not necessarily assured. And while the setting establishes the formal conditions of possibility of the analytic process, the basic transference permits the establishment of the psychic conditions that are necessary for it to unfold.

It is not easy to grasp this basic aspect of analytic work because it is often silent or virtual. While it is more clearly required in face-to face work, it is in the margins or manifests only at certain critical moments of classical analysis. It is entangled with projective and narcissistic residues and so can be difficult to discern. For Parat, the basic transference can also persist after the end of an analysis and must then be relinquished by the analysand. Certain renewed contacts in a face-to-face sett