Transference and Countertransference When Seeking

Transference and Countertransference

When seeking therapy, a client brings with him or her not only the current problem to be worked on. The person has a complete history filled with positive and negative experiences that could play an influencing role in the current situation. Many of these experiences could also result in residual feelings and opinions, which may be exaggerated or false, but which nonetheless persist as a result of the nature of the experience. When these feelings and thoughts are projected onto a therapist, the phenomenon is known as transference; the client transfers his or her feelings onto the therapist. Countertransference could also occur. This is a process during which the therapist projects feelings and thoughts projected onto the client. These are often the result of a combination of the therapist's thoughts and feelings about the client's situation and the therapist's past experiences that may have created similar feelings and reactions. This can also happen in a care giving relationship, such as those providing services to the elderly. An elderly person's plight could evoke certain responses in a care giver, while the elderly person could also project a sense of helplessness or dependence onto the therapist, who is regarded as a type of parental figure.

Three types of counter transference can be identified: defensive, reactive, and induced. Defensive countrtransference refers to the most common type, which is the result of the therapist's own inner conflicts. These are projected towards the therapist's interactions with and reactions to the client. In a situation with an elderly client, for example, the care giver may experience difficulties to remain patient with all the needs and demands of the work. This may then create negative emotions within the care giver, which are projected into the relationship.

Reactive countertransference refers to the therapist's responses to the emotions and situations brought to the therapeutic process. A client may, for example, experience very strong emotions and display these. A therapist may have past experiences that involved similar emotions or situations and responds on the grounds of such a background. In a working situation with an elderly client, the care giver may have personal experiences with emotional displays and responses. This could have created psychological damage within the care giver, which is then projected in the form of negative responses. A frustrated elderly client may, for example, be in a constantly bad and hostile mood. A care giver who has experienced this from parents as a child may experience this in an extremely negative way and respond accordingly.

Induced countertransference is a process of empathy that is generally manipulated by the client. A client may, for example require a specific response to his or her situation by a therapist. Most commonly, such a client would seek sympathy or some other form of recognition that is not otherwise experienced in his or her life. For a care giver, an elderly person might act in an excessively helpless way to elicit more from the care giver than is necessary. This could be the result of general loneliness and neglect that an elderly person can be experienced as a result of general society or neglect by the family. From a therapeutic point-of-view, it can be quite easy to give in to this type of countertransference.