Transference and Counter-Transference

3
Transference and counter-transference
Transference and its implications for casework

We have seen that caseworker and client alike have expec-
tations about each other even before they meet. Such
ideas are based on their past patterns of relationships and
we therefore say that they are transferred to the present.
Such transferences of feelings influence the new rela-
tionship in important ways. As R. Gosling (1968) has
pointed out, they affect the way we (a) perceive; (b) inter-
pret the new situations and (c) influence it; for our
behaviour, in terms of our assumptions, tends to elicit a
response in the partner(s) which fits in with our expecta-
tions. An example of (a) was the woman who felt so
Copyright © 1973. Taylor & Francis Group. All rights reserved.
responsible for her child's problems that she saw the case--
worker as highly critical of her, someone who would blame
her. An example of (b) is the client who interprets his
caseworker's absence as the result of the excessive demands
he made on her. An example of (c) is the young
offender who, expecting punishment, behaves in such a
provocative way to his Probation Officer, that the latter
finally does in fact respond in an aggressive and punitive
way.
It is most important, therefore, for the caseworker to
be aware of the nature of transferred feelings. Knowing
15
Salzberger-Wittenberg, I 1973, Psycho-Analytic Insight and Relationships : A Kleinian Approach, Taylor &
Francis Group, London. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [2 November 2022].
Created from bbk on 2022-11-02 13:36:02.
ASPECTS OF A RELATIONSHIP
that such feelings are transferred from the past may help
her to look at the situation more objectively. The deep
feelings of love, hatred and dependence which the client
experiences towards her may have less to do with her
personal worth, than finding himself in a relationship
where such feelings are reactivated. Secondly, such aware-
ness will help the caseworker to resist colluding with or
being manipulated by the client to fit in with unrealistic
expectations whether they be of someone bad or ideal.
In this way, instead of being encouraged to act out his
feelings, the client is forced to become aware of them, to
compare them to the reality of the situation and to deal
with his frustrations.
The concept of transference

We owe the discovery of the phenomena of transference
to Sigmund Freud (1895). When he found that hysterical
female patients tended to fall in love with their physician,
he first regarded this as a nuisance and hindrance to the
work of analysis. But he had the brilliance subsequently to
arrive at the conclusion that what was happening was
that the patient was re-experiencing feelings that he had
had previously towards someone else, e.g. the girl towards
her father. Such feelings had given rise to conflict, had
been suppressed, and found an outlet in the hysterical
symptom. In the psycho-analytic setting, they surfaced

again. Freud later found that all kinds of earlier conflicts
involving hate, jealousy, rivalry, etc. entered into the
relationship with the analyst. 'A whole series of psycho-
logical experiences are revived, not as belonging to the
past, but as applying to the physician at the present
moment (1905, p. n6). Such repetitions made it possible
for earlier conflicts to be understood and undergo change.
It also enabled Freud, to a large extent, to reconstruct the
patient's past. On the basis of many adult analyses, Freud
was able to arrive at hypotheses about the sexual develop-
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TRANSFERENCE AND COUNTER-TRANSFERENCE
ment of children. Direct observation of children has since
proved these to be correct.
Through Melanie Klein's work (1952) the concept of
transference has extended in two directions. First, she
widened it to include not only repressed conflicts but the
whole range of earlier emotions which enter into a rela-
tionship. Secondly, it has deepened in the sense that
Klein's analysis of children showed that what is trans-
ferred are both more grown up elements and all the
infantile feeling states which persist right through life.
It is in the Kleinian sense that I have applied trans-
ference in the foregoing chapters. We shall later need to
examine the nature of the 'child and baby feelings' exist-
ing within the adult, and trace their roots to infancy.
Counter-transference
The caseworker, like the client, brings to the situation
expectations, fears and problems transferred from the
past. For instance, she may see in the client before her
some aspect of her mother and consequently feel herself
still to be in the position of a little girl, unable to help
this adult. Or, faced with a couple, her problems of
jealousy in relation to her parents may incline her to
support one against the other. She may be over-inquisitive,
motivated less by the wish to understand and be con-
cerned about her client than driven by the need to intrude

into other people's private life as she might have once
wanted to enter into the secret life of the parents from
which she was excluded, or she may be so frightened of
such inclinations that her natural curiosity is inhibited.
There is a common tendency for workers to side with
children against their parents because of the wish to
blame one's own parents for whatever has gone wrong in
one's life. This is, of course, particularly so if the child
in fact appears to be rejected or the mother expresses
hatred for her child, in spite of the caseworker's theoretical
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ASPECTS OF A RELATIONSHIP
acceptance of a non-critical attitude! We need to dis-

associate ourselves sufficiently to be able to ask: 'Why
does this woman feel like this about this particular child?',
and appreciate the mother's difficulties. If we do, we may
find that the mother's hostile or even murderous feelings
are not so alien to our nature after all, for we harbour in
ourselves similar hidden feelings towards siblings or un-
acceptable childish parts of ourselves. Sometimes a parti-
cular problem so closely corresponds to the worker's own,
that she is either blind to it or alternatively gets over-
involved.
The term 'counter-transference' was coined to denote
feelings which the worker transfers from the past and
inappropriately applies to the client or his problem. Super-
vision and self-examination are important to check
whether clients in general, or particular clients or specific
problems tend to trigger off in the caseworker her own
unsolved problems. In so far as they do, this will distort
her perception and interfere with her interaction with the
client.
In recent years, the term counter-transference has also
been used in a different sense: namely, to describe the
reaction set off in the worker as a result of being recep-
tive to the client's transferred feelings. These emotions, in
so far as they correctly mirror the client's, are a most
helpful guide to understanding. Often, they give us a clue
to the feelings which have remained unexpressed. For

instance, a client may evoke great concern in us as if the
child in him was crying out for maternal care although
he may tell us repeatedly that he doesn't want any help.
Or, for instance, feeling in despair after a client left may be
the only clue, that behind the client's outburst of anger
there is a hopeless, miserable part of himself. After a
holiday, a child sat for weeks behind books apparently
completely rejecting me and the treatment. This was her
way of communicating to me what she had felt I had
done to her in the holiday, and how terrible it was not to
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TRANSFERENCE AND COUNTER-TRANSFERENCE
be able to get in touch.
It becomes pertinent therefore to ask oneself: what
does this person make me feel like? and what does this
tell me about him, about the nature of the relationship
and about the effect he has on others? Further, we need
to question ourselves whether this is valid intuition, a
response in terms of what the client is communicating or
whether we are reacting in terms of what we are putting
into the situation. Such questioning can lead to greater
understanding, of oneself, of the client and of the nature
of the 'here and now' relationship.
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Transference and counter-transference

Transference and its implications for casework

The concept of transference

symptom. In the psycho-analytic setting, they surfaced

cerned about her client than driven by the need to intrude

acceptance of a non-critical attitude! We need to dis-

to the feelings which have remained unexpressed. For

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