In an experimental study on perception of transference, three patients in psychotherapy were tachistoscopically exposed to a picture of the therapist, a blank, and a picture of another person of the same sex and about the same age as the therapist. The stimuli were all below the level of conscious recognition. To each stimulus the subject was asked to make a drawing; associate to the drawing; make another drawing, an elaboration of the initial picture, and associate to it. In two patients, testing was done near the beginning of therapy, and repeated after ten additional therapy sessions. The third patient was tested four times in a three-month period of therapy though only the results of the first two testing periods are presented here. Our findings are:

1The initial preconscious perception of the therapist tends to persist from the first testing through later sessions, although it undergoes transformations sometimes of a quite surprising