In an effort to update the meaning and utility of psychoanalytic constructs, Freud's concept of transference was examined. Freud's use of the term (in terms of a sort of “mechanical” or automatic displacement from the past) was compared with the more contemporary conceptualization based on how experience is organized, and its organization into “schemata.” A modification of this latter mode of formulating transference was offered, wherein “transference” is understood as a function of early personal and interpersonal learning that helps develop beliefs about self, significant others, and what one has come to expect from interactions with significant others. These beliefs significantly influence contemporary personal and interpersonal experiences, depending on the degree of similarity of the present experience with the past. So construed, “transference” remains the cornerstone of the psychoanalytic theory of personality.