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Transference is a vast and complex subject. In this paper I would like to discuss what appear to me to be the significant issues, based on my having taught the theory of psychoanalytic technique for many years. My hope is to contribute to an intellectual working-through of some transference issues rather than to offer ideas that are totally new. I have selected, among the myriad questions raised by this ever-present, infinitely complex phenomenon, ten issues for discussion. I shall list these items and then take them up in turn.
What should be included in the definition of transference? Should it be defined narrowly or broadly?
In what ways can transference be usefully viewed in relation to reality?
What merit is there in distinguishing the working alliance from transference?
Should self and object transference be differentiated?
Should transference neuroses be discriminated from transfer ence reactions on the one hand and from transference psychoses on the other?
In addition to sexual and aggressive transferences, should sexualized and aggressivitized transferences, respectively, be distinguished?
* This paper was delivered as an oral presentation at a workshop program on Transference sponsored by The New York Freudian Society on December 1, 1984. A few changes have been made for purposes of publication.
How may transference be conceived of as a vehicle of cure and yet also as a resistance to cure?