THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS

Vol. XXXIV 1953 Part 1

ORIGINAL PAPERS

SOME ASPECTS OF TRANSFERENCE* 1

By DANIEL LAGACHE, Paris

I. Preliminary Remarks Watson’s Behaviourism, but approximates more However close the links between theory and closely to the more evolved forms of Behaviour­ practice, it might be considered permissible to ism (Molar Behaviourism) according to which regard psycho-analysis as essentially a method conduct cannot be reduced to separate entities of therapy with the manipulation of transference but constitutes a totality of responses which are as its principal tool. In view of this it is rather both physiological, conative, and symbolical, astonishing that, apart from Fenichel’s book, so this totality having a meaning. It is for this little should have been written on technique and reason that the verbalizations of the patient are that works on transference should be even not only considered on the basis of their abstract rarer. This is one of the reasons why the content, their face value, but are regarded at Psycho-Analytical Society of Paris has placed the same time as a piece of concrete behaviour, the problem of transference on its programme a mode of dealing with the psycho-analytical for the next conference of French-speaking situation; for instance, a stereotyped tendency psycho-analysts which is to take place in Paris to begin a session by an account of dreams can on 1 November, 1951. Nor is this an isolated be interpreted as a resistance, the psycho­ case; psycho-analysts are turning their atten­ analyst neglecting partially and for the time tion once more to this problem (unless those being the content of the dreams. who are themselves interested in this topic come (3) The behaviouristic point of view chal­ to this conclusion as the result of an illusion). lenges the psycho-analyst to interest himself Such considerations and circumstances have in the experimental studies of behaviour and carried a great deal of weight ih the decision particularly of learning. In relation to psycho­ to bring up this question before your Society analysis, experimental psychology could play and to promote discussion of various points of a part analogous to that played by experimental view on transference. pathology to medicine. Experimentation, Before embarking upon this matter it might though not as concrete and comprehensive as be useful to indicate the sort of approach that clinical psychology, is yet in a position to seems practicable to me. I will content myself furnish simpler and better-established principles. with three remarks. Furthermore, the use of the same or analogous (1) Speaking generally, psycho-analysis has concepts serves as a sort of experimentation on tended more and more to become a psycho­ ideas and also shows up some new aspects of analysis of behaviour (Lagache, 1948); the them; as an example we may cite experimental compatibility of psycho-analysis and the psycho­ works on instrumental fixations and regressions, logy of behaviour has been very clearly shown or on the problems of conflict. Of course such by Susan Isaacs (1938). rapprochements must not lead to a falsification (2) The concept of behaviour which has been of psycho-analytical data and of the hypotheses found useful in psycho-analysis is not that of put forward to account for them.

1 Paper read at the meeting of the British Psycho-Analytical Society, 4 April, 1951. 1 2 DANIEL LAGACHE The psycho-analylicai approach to behaviour Now a segment of behaviour is a dynamic finds an ideal held in the study of transference; structure which develops through time and has not Freud himself postulated that in trans­ which consists of different facets: ference the patient substitutes repetition by (1) Motivation, that is to say, the modifica­ behaviour for remembering by thought and tion of the personality which sets it in motion, language? (Freud, 1917). until the tensions and dissociations inherent in needs and emotions have been reduced; psycho­ //. A Definition o f Transference analysis has shown that motivation is indeed Transference is generally defined as a repeti­ multiple—that is over-determined—contentious tion in present-day life, and particularly in the and partly unconscious; let us add that it relationship to the analyst, of unconscious changes with the development of activity which emotional attitudes developed during childhood is at the same time motivated and motivating; within the family group and especially towards the activity is in response to certain modifica­ the parents; it is usual to add that the trans­ tions of the organism in its environment, and ference may be friendly, hostile, or ambivalent. the organism itself is modified by this activity Although we could refer to Freud in defence of itself. this definition, yet it fails to represent com­ (2) Variable behaviour—that is to say the pletely all the aspects of his thought or the search after means (tools and social techniques) complexity of the facts. It is true that defini­ with the aid of which the personality tries to tions of this type say more than they state reduce excitation, whether through the use of explicitly. Let us try to express it. old patterns or through adjusting them to the This type of definition can be subjected to new situation ; this is a phase of conduct which three principal criticisms: can work itself out more or less completely in (1) In a descriptive analysis it is undoubtedly the symbolic guise of a mental experience. possible to speak of the phenomenon of repeti­ (3) The goal of behaviour which may be tion. But this does not tell us its function, such alloplastic, autoplastic, or mixed. as whether we are dealing with a repetition (4) The object of behaviour with the help of motivated by particular needs or with an automa­ which the organism tries to reach its goal and tic and compulsive repetition due to a specific which has always either a positive or a negative need to repeat. The second interpretation is value correlated to the needs in question. on the whole the more usual, because the (5) Finally we can distinguish secondary theory of automatic repetition has exercised effects of behaviour besides those immediately so great an influence. related to the goal ; they consist most usually in (2) The concept of unconscious emotional modifications of the personality and sometimes attitude is equally vague. Such a definition in external events, which are associated in a less implies that, if transferred emotional attitudes are visible manner with the activity of the subject. unconscious, it is because they have not been able These distinctions permit a precise definition to develop, or because they have been repressed of the significance of behaviour. Behaviour and have for this reason retained the dynamic being the organized whole of responses through power of the repressed emotions and needs. which the personality modifies its interaction (3) The classification of emotional attitudes with the environment, its significance and into those of love, hate, and ambivalence is a function lies in the ability with which its actions rather general one, and does little justice to the reduce motivation (tension, dissociation) and more specific features of the transferred emo­ help the personality to realize its potentialities. tional attitude. Let us see how this schema of the segment In considering transference as a concrete and of behaviour can be applied to the problem of active piece of behaviour Freud indicated a transference: solution whose importance we can now better (1) Every distinct movement can be learned assess thanks to the progress of psychology. and transferred; the concepts of instinct fixa­ Transference is a specific way in which the tion, object fixation, and goal fixation are patient behaves in the psycho-analytical situa­ familiar to us all; although the concept of tion ; it is a segment of behaviour. We could, instrumental fixation has not been formulated therefore, in principle, apply to it the general it is often employed under the name of social notions regarded as applicable to an understand­ techniques; for instance, a patient shows ing of all segments of behaviour. himself submissive in order to be loved. SOME ASPECTS OF TRANSFERENCE 3

(2) In psycho-analytic practice we frequently the repetitive character of transference by his understand as transference partial aspects of use of various expressions (cliché, stéréotype). behaviour, either because transference has Transference is the result both of resistance developed only slightly, as if in outline, or which replaces remembering by repetition in because there are not enough data: we see acting out, and of the dynamic unconscious, clearly that a part of the analysand’s behaviour that is to say of frustrated and repressed ten­ reproduces his older attitudes, but we do not dencies which are4 ready for transference ’ (Coll. understand why. Papers, II, 321). Readiness for transference and (3) A complete interpretation of transference the acting out of repetition are explained in demands of the analyst that he respond to each terms of the Pleasure Principle. question corresponding to its different facets. From 1914 onwards Freud was led to stress (4) It is essential that an interpretation seize the compulsive character of the repetition in upon the functional significance of any piece of transference (Coll. Papers, II, 336). However, behaviour under review. It will remain dynamic it was only in Beyond the Pleasure Principle that if we adhere to th e4 here and now \ It becomes repetition was regarded not only as a descriptive developmental to the extent to which it can category but as the very origin of transference. show how the past has realized itself in the The essence of Freud’s argument in Chapter III present in terms of psycho-analytical situations. can be summed up as follows: infantile sexual Briefly it has been said in criticism of the experience was a painful experience, a failure current definitions of transference, that they are and an injury to the child’s narcissism; its limited to statements of the equivalence of the repression was in conformity with the Pleasure past and the present and in particular of motiva­ Principle; its repetition in transference is tion (unconscious emotional attitudes) and its therefore contrary to the Pleasure Principle and objects ; thus, important aspects of transference derives from the compulsion of repetition. are, if not ignored, at least passed over in But Freud’s thought is not quite so simple and silence; furthermore, and above all, these he raises objections to himself. Infantile definitions do not express the dynamic relation­ experience was not quite so contrary to the ships which exist between the various facets of Pleasure Principle; at first the child expected behaviour. One of the ideas which derives to have some pleasure; later what is unpleasure from our various observations and which guides at one level is pleasure at another; an experience our researches is the following: transference is may be less unpleasant as it becomes the object essentially the transference of functional signi­ of memories and dreams. Such considerations ficance, or more briefly, it is the transference of lead one to expect a more sophisticated dis­ function. For instance, for a woman whose cussion and an effort to relate the compulsion brother was preferred to her and whose husband of repetition to motivation through needs and neglected her, the functional significance of emotions. transference consists in giving her a sense of her However, these difficulties appear to have personal value and in allowing her to 1 realize * been forgotten later on, and in Chapter V, Freud herself to be a woman; for a man brought up asserts that transference, the product of the by an authoritarian father, the import of the compulsion of repetition, is completely inde­ analytical experience is to escape from the pendent of the Pleasure Principle. analyst and to show him that he is much more The influence which these assertions have wicked. exerted upon the conceptions of psycho­ analysts as regards the way in which transference III. The Evolution o f Freud's Thought is produced has undoubtedly been very great. The relationship of this idea to Freud’s In their various writings authors of standing theories varies according to the period of the have postulated an identity between trans­ development of his system of thought with ference and the compulsion of repetition. It which we compare it. The evolution of Freud’s is this conception which is reflected in the theories on transference can be traced as a current definitions. The explanation of trans­ concomitant of the meaning and rôle of ference in terms of automatic repetition often repetition. seems to have led to a forgetting of those more Amongst the technical writings,4 Dynamics of dynamic explanations which preceded it. Transference ’ (1912) can be regarded as repre­ Thus in Beyond the Pleasure Principle the texts sentative of the first stage. Freud emphasizes concerning the production of transference seem 4 DANIEL LAGACHE indeed to raise the problem of the interpretation Principle, is ousted by a more or less unrealistic of Freud’s thought. However unequivocal search for pleasure. certain passages may be, does the idea of auto­ Equally Experimental Psychology compels us matic repetition as the sole causal factor really not to ignore the complexity of the relationship represent the last word in his system of thought between repetition and motivation. Obviously or should we not look into Freud’s works for the problem is formulated in different terms; a more subtle conception of the need for researches have brought to light more material repetition and its relationship to the repetition as regards instrumental behaviour and cognitive of needs? processes. Nevertheless, as regards the rôle of It is clear that the concept of transference as a repetition, we encounter the same difficulties transference of function approximates more and the same controversies. A thorough study closely to Freud’s earlier formulations. Such a would require the examination of instinctive reversion would not be the first in the history of behaviour and above all of the acquisition and psycho-analysis. evolution of habits. This would show that in the course of the last twenty-five years the rôle IV. The Need for Repetition and the Repetition of repetition has tended to be minimized in o f Needs favour of motivation; the laws of learning, The most extreme position taken up by Freud which derive from repetition, do not function can be formulated as follows: transference is independently of those which express the effect the product of a specific need, which transcends of motivation. repetition, a need to which Freud ascribes a While leaving out a description and discussion malignant and mysterious character. But trans­ of the phenomena described as * spontaneous ference is not the only manifestation of the recovery of conditional responses or habits’, automatism of repetition. One cannot therefore we shall linger somewhat longer over a descrip­ avoid searching for what it is that repeats itself tion of the facts described as the Zeigarnik in transference and enquiring into its particular Effect. form. The hypothesis of a need to repeat In 1927 Zeigarnik showed experimentally that, leads necessarily to a consideration of the other things being equal, interrupted tasks were methods and conditions required for a repetition relatively better remembered and taken up again of needs or, in other words, of the relationship with a greater enthusiasm than were completed of repetition and motivation. tasks. It has been found in other experiments The internal discussion of Freud’s arguments that those who had failed in a task showed a brings a certain amount of elucidation. greater persistence of activity than those who Freud himself, it has been shown, objects that had succeeded. The concept of the involvement infantile experience and its repetition are not of the ego is linked with the researches of Lewin devoid of all search for pleasure; * readiness and his school on changes in the level of aspira­ for transference ’ was first thought of as a hope tion as a result of success or failure. for a better outcome. Such investigations throw some light on the On the other hand, resistance conforms to the metapsychology of behaviour. When a cycle Reality Principle, the extension of the Pleasure unfolds itself without interruption, this very Principle. But Freud has always maintained unfolding is maintained by a specific tension; that this was a repetition of those defences it is only when the tension has been resolved which played a decisive part in primary repres­ that the cycle of behaviour is completed; for sion. Taken in this sense, resistance could be instance, a horse troubled by flies will flap its regarded as the expression of a useful habit, tail until the flies have gone. a repetition in conformity with the Pleasure The Zeigarnik effect shows that the frustration Principle. resulting from the interruption of or failure in Hence repetition does not exclude pleasure a task does not suppress the motivating tension. and pleasure does not exclude repetition. What Not only does the personality remain motivated is re-enacted in transference is the defence to take up the task again, but one might even against repressed drives. The ego’s defence suggest that the frustration resulting from mechanism does not allow their return in the interruption or failure has increased the need form of memories, but it cannot prevent their to complete the task satisfactorily. return in the guise of action. The defence Does the psycho-analytic transference not against unpleasure, that is to say, the Reality derive, in part at least, from an analogous SOME ASPECTS OF TRANSFERENCE S mechanism, though the time interval between terms of love and hate, even though such an the interruption of activity and the resumption expression would not exhaust the whole content of activity is even greater? of transference. It follows from this that the particular way The terminology of experimental psychology in which repetition manifests itsdf in trans­ is focussed not on emotional but on instrumental ference can he schematized as follows: habits. Its logical structure is also a little (1) Infantile experience is a series of trials and different In order to avoid complications and errors which end in failure and an injury to confusions we shall confine ourselves to a narcissism. discussion of the positive and negative effects of (2) Repression is the result of the predomi­ transference, without insisting on their identity nance of ego defences. But this renunciation is with positive and negative transference. not necessarily complete or final. Repression The effect of transference is negative if, in a is facilitated by a hope for a better outcome as given situation, the acquired habits interfere well as by the intervention of postponement. with the establishment of new habits, as, for Lampl-de Groot, explaining the passing of the example, if the habit of driving on the right Oedipus complex in the boy, saw in postpone­ interferes with the ability to learn to drive on ment an unconscious and phylogenetic mecha­ the left. Wc can distinguish reproductive nism (1927). Recourse to postponement can inhibition by means of which ncwly-acquired show itself in conscious behaviour; the child habits interfere with the performance of pre­ expects quite often that the parents will become viously acquired skills from associative inter­ small when he grows up; my impression is that ference which has just been defined. the boy, particularly if there is conflict between Let us take a simple and clear example cited the parents, hopes to take away his mother from by Nunberg in a recent article (1951): his father and to give her a happier life; this * A patient showed from the very beginning an reaction may continue until adolescence or even astonishing willingness for and understanding beyond it of the analysis. His associations flowed easily, (3) Readiness for transference is the persis­ he produced important recollections, and so on. tence of tensions connected with repressed needs He continued in this way for a fairly long period, and emotions; the narcissistic iryury, of which yet the analysis did not make any progress, until Freud speaks, stimulates nqt only the defence we found that his mother used to ask him to o f the ego but also the need for reparation. It tell her everything he thought and did during plays a part in the production of transference the day. Our patient confided all his thoughts which, as far as we know, has not been clearly to her until late in adolescence. It gave him defined. At the basis of transference we often great pleasure when she was talking with him find not only the frustration of instinctual at night while silting on his bed. and he could drives but also a dangerous and humiliating see, through her thin nightgown, the contours of privation of the ego. her body, particularly of her breasts. He (4) Finally transference is the progressive pretended to tell her everything, but the secret actualization, in the psycho-analytical situation, of his sexual fantasies about her he kept to of unresolved conflicts. himself. Displaying similar behaviour in his analysis, he pretended to tell the truth; in fact, V. Positive and Negative Effects o f Transference tried to fool his analyst as he had his mother. Classically positive and negative transference In his behaviour with other people he was has been defined in terms of friendly or hostile sincere yet reserved and distrustful so that he feelings; the insufficiencies of this position have never had really close friends. He was a lone­ been resolved by postulating that transference some man.' is most often ambivalent. Such a formulation The psycho-analytical concepts of positive and docs not exclude more specific definitions; negative transference can easily be applied to rather it is a useful way of classifying the various this example; in the first phase the positive phenomena of transference on the basis of what transference hides a latent negative transference is most essential. A criticism would therefore which in its turn makes itself manifest with the be unjust, as it would be based on too literal and appearance of resistances. Nunbcrg’s inter­ narrow an interpretation. Furthermore, we pretation reveals the ambivalence: * the patient must bear in mind that in many cases a complete tried to fool his analyst as he had fooled his explanation would warrant an expression in mother \ Although Nunberg does not explicitly 6 DANIEL LAGACHE state this, the most apparent characteristic of without doubt, the reduction of resistance is this behaviour is a hostile defence. connected with a more friendly attitude; the Experimental concepts permit the presentation concept of ambivalence is not sufficiently well of data in a manner that is a little different differentiated to define the references to the though not incompatible. In the analytical dynamic relationships of love and hate: often situation the patient must acquire new habits transference covers up an emotional indifference whose import is expressed in the fundamental which is a defence against both love and hate, rule. By this essential feature the analytical (hough generally it is nearer to hostility. Doubt­ situation places the subject again in the old less, the difficulties and errors entailed by the situation of conversations with his mother. current definition of transference can be solved Transference has a positive and a negative or avoided; as investigations progress an effect. The negative effect is at first latent. It adequate and specific formula should be found. becomes predominant when the habit of hiding However, a formulation in terms of displace­ his sexual fantasies from his mother begins to ment of affect is not sufficiently comprehensive interfere with the learning of the fundamental and precise. Besides, it introduces obscurities rule. and ambiguities inherent in the psycho-analytical This example does not show us any diver­ concepts of love and hate. gences in the application of psycho-analytic In considering this problem from the point of concepts and experimental concepts (which view of behaviour in the psycho-analytical cannot always hold true). What interests us situation, the facts could be presented in is to find out whether formulations in experi­ another way: mental terms can be of any interest to the (1) The patient, with all his past and all his psycho-analyst. To say that the patient has problems, finds himself in a situation where he transferred to the analyst the feelings of ambiva­ must learn to express freely what he thinks and lence which he had experienced towards his what he feels, without selecting and without mother is correct but not enough ; this formula excluding. does not cover all the aspects of transference (2) Not being able to adjust himself at once nor is it sufficiently specific. In the experimental to this situation he falls back on trial and error formulation the positive and negative meaning behaviour, drawing upon his stock of patterns. is defined in terms of the relationship of the (3) Transference is the progressive working old behaviour pattern to the psycho-analytical out in the psycho-analytical situation of bis situation, that is to say the learning of the unresolved conflicts. fundamental rule. (4) The effect of transference is negative if In other words, the definitions which can be the patient relies on patterns which are incom­ derived from the application of the experimental patible with the learning of the fundamental concepts should be as follows: the effect of rule. Such a definition corresponds to the transference is positive if it is compatible with classical definition in as far as the relationship the methods and aims of psycho-ana lysis; it is of hostility to narcissism and ego defence has negative if the contrary is the C 3 $ c . been noted. Negative transference expresses This operational concept docs not mention itself in the defence and retrenchment of the the direction of the emotional attitude in the ego, which seeks its security in the utilization of determination of the direction of transference, learned solutions. The general import of a although it implies it. It docs not offend negative transference is the reduction of tensions. psycho-analytic opinions : psycho-analysts know (5) The effect of transference is positive if the well that the repetition of affect is only one patterns which are enacted favour the learning aspect of transference, even though they consider of the fundamental rule. This definition is in it as essential and decisive. The concept accord with the Freudian conception, which proposed avoids the difficulties which everybody claims that only the positive feelings of the knows and which consist in this: that there analysand make it possible for the resistances is no constant correlation between the manifest to be overcome. This means that a friendly emotions of a patient and the effect of trans­ atmosphere is the precondition for security and ference on the cure; the expression of love can the acceptance of risk. The positive effect of immobilize the analysis; the expression of hate transference favours the attainment of an can correspond to a definite progress, if the optimum level of tension and the expression and need for security has been reduced, though, realization of the potentialities of the patient. SOME ASPECTS OF TRANSFERENCE 7 VI. The Râle o f the Psycho-analyst and the members of the group; authority has submis­ Production o f Transference sion, exhibitionism has contemplation, sadism As regards this vast and difficult question we has masochism for its correlative. These ideas shall content ourselves with a few indications have already been put forward by Pierre Janet, concerning the position of the problem. who has several times insisted on the dual During the last decades psycho-analytical character of social behaviour. If this point of technique has been the object of harsh criticisms. view is applied to psycho-analytical experience, From the moral point of view some have the concepts of rôle and of interdependence of reproached it with the absence of real and rôles arc called upon to explain a number of human relationships, others have accused it of functions which the classical theory, expressing an artificial production of paranoia. From the itself in terms of intra-psychic processes, assigns point of view of technique Karen Homey to identification. disapproves of the neglect of the present in The concept of inter-individual rôles, in fact, favour o f the past; Alexander advises psycho­ lends itself to the description and explanation analysts to play that rôle which is in opposition of numerous aspects of the psycho-analytical to that of the unfavourable parental figures so experience. as to favour the development of a corrective (1) The ideal rôle of the psycho-analyst is a experience. Leaving aside the moral and cultural and technical pattern; it would serve technical aspects of the question we will apply as a means of describing the various stages in ourselves more particularly to specify the posi­ the Freudian technique and its typical differences tive rôle of the psycho-analyst in the production according to the various schools. of transference. (2) As a correlative there is the rôle of the The classical answer to this question is summed analysand which is also a more or less differen­ up in the Freudian allegory of the mirror. The tiated cultural and technical pattern: the rôle of the patient is predominant ; it is he who sophisticated patient frequently adds to the brings to life the psycho-analytical situation instructions of the analyst (lying down on the because of his desires, his fears, and his habits ; couch, keeping the face averted from the analyst, he makes the analyst play an imaginary rôle. talking freely) rules of conduct of his own, Hence the importance attributed by some, such borrowed from stereotyped conceptions of analy­ as Nun berg, to projection, conceived of as trans­ sis; to recount his dreams, to recount his ference in terms of special perception. Summing childhood memories. up, transference is generally regarded as a (3) The actual rôle of the psycho-analyst is spontaneous phenomenon whose production is the personal and concrete way in which he explained, following the expression of Rickman, interprets the cultural and technical pattern. which has recently been taken up by Balint, (4) The actual rôle of the analysand is no within the framework of a * one-body other than the transference. Transference may psychology ». make the patient want to get out of the rôle of Balint suggests in the same work that the analysand or, on the contrary, he may confine progress of our knowledge of transference and himself within the limits of this stereotyped rôle counter-transference depends in part on a because of his need for security. transition into the framework of a * two-body (5) The analysand imposes upon the analyst psychology \ The psychological field has been an imaginary rôle; this part of the psycho­ defined as the interaction between organism and analytical experience could be regarded, as environment. Likewise the psycho-analytical Nunberg has done, in terms of projection. field has been defined as the interaction of doctor (6) The active expression, the dramatization and patient. Thus the theory of psycho­ in everyday life of the unconscious conflicts. analytical therapy becomes a problem of group (7) Counter-transference is the rôle which dynamics and here the use of the psycho-social the psycho-analyst assumes in response to the concept of the rôle seems to become particu­ actual rôle played by the analysand. larly fruitful. (8) The techniques which have been described In a few words, every individual participates as * active ' consist in the psycho-analyst con­ in a number of groups. In each of them he has sciously playing a rôle; for instance, in the tech­ a different status and a different rôle. But be nique which relies on * corrective experience \ cannot play his rôle independently of the as advocated by Alexander, the psycho-analyst complementary rôles played by the other consistently plays a rôle which is different 8 DANIEL LAGACHE from that played by the unfavourable parental Thus the analysis of the ideal psycho-analytical figures. field in terms of rôles leads to two sequels: (9) Even if inactive, tbc analyst still plays a (1) The psycho-analytical environment, since positive rôle and he induces in the patient a it is defined in negative terms, cannot be complementary rôle; psycho-analytical therapy regarded as neutral; these negative aspects can be defined theoretically as a learning of should be considered as positive and original rôles. traits, the most important of which, though not (10) The patient transfers into his everyday the only one. is frustration. life the rôles acquired in his interaction with the (2) The subsequent regressions which become psycho-analyst. apparent in the evolution of transference are Leaving aside other possible applications, let induced in part by the frustrating rôle of the us return to the positive and original charac­ analyst. teristics of the ideal rôle of the psycho-analyst. Hence it seems that the psycho-analytical However artificial and neutral the psycho­ environment and the rôle of the analyst play a analytical situation may be in principle, H positive rôle in the production of transference. cannot be denied that it has the structure and This idea has been developed by Ida Macalpine feeling of a situation of inferiority-superiority in her recent article in The Psychoanalytic in which the psycho-analyst plays, to some extent, Q uarterly (1950). In certain cases it is evident the rôle of the leader. But what kind of a from the very beginning that the frustration leader? The work of Kurt Lewjn and his imposed by the analyst, and particularly by his collaborators (1939) has defined with remarkable silence, reactivates the original frustration and precision the rôles of the authoritarian leader, favours regression. the democratic leader and the laissez-faire If we return to the technical writings of Freud, leader. Each type of leader creates a specific we find that we need not stretch their meaning social climate where the degree of aggression in order to discover cléments to support the is variable: it is lowest (2) in the authoritarian point of view here proposed. In many passages climate where we find an apathetic reaction even the details in style attest the positive (covert aggression); it is medium in the demo­ action which Freud ascribed to the psycho­ cratic climate (20); it is still higher (30) in the analytical situation; his study of transference authoritarian climate with overt aggression, but love is one of the most conclusive (Freud, 1915). exceeded by the level reached in the laissez faire But what is the nature of this action? The climate (38). Thus, all being equal, these experi­ answer can be found in the texts concerning the ments seem to show the interdependence of the rule of abstinence (Freud, 1915, p. 383, and form and degree of frustration on the one hand Freud, 1919, pp. 396-397) where it is explicitly and the level of aggressivity on the other, or. related to the 'frustration that made the patient in other words, the interdependence of the rôle ill ’ (p. 396); without doubt frustration by the of the leader and the rôle of the led. analyst plays a similar rôle in the production of We may try to clarify the characteristics of transference neurosis: * When the symptoms the ideal rôle of the psycho-analyst, that is to have been dissected and the value of them thus say, of a cultural and technical pattern and discounted, his sufferings become moderated, not of a concrete and actual rôle, in comparing and then we must set up a sufficiently distressing these to the patterns created by the three types privation again in some other sensitive spot, or of leaders described by Lewin. The rôle of the else we run the risk of never achieving any psycho-analyst comprises elements of all the further improvement except quite insignificant three rôles, the traits borrowed from the laissez- and transitory ones ’ (pp. 396-397). fa ir e leader being predominant, such as. for example, the trait of * complete non-participa­ Resumé tion by the leader Now this is an eminently (1) Preliminary Remarks. This article is the frustrating rôle, as shown by the level of aggres­ author's first attempt to study just a few aspects sion obtained in response to it in Lewin’s of transference. Of all the psycho-analytical experiments, but which at the same time allows concepts transference is particularly suitable for aggression to express itself ; furthermore it leads a study made from the point of view of the to a decrease of the constructive tendencies of the psychology of behaviour, behaviour being followers, and to a certain primitiven ess of regarded as a structured and significant whole behaviour, or, in other words, to a regression. of physiological, motor, verbal and mental SOME ASPECTS OF TRANSFERENCE 9

responses; transference lends itself also to a in what particular way this need expresses comparison with the results of experimental itself in transference. The criticism intrinsic to psychology where the transfer of learning plays Freud’s position in Beyond the Pleasure Principle such a considerable part. establishes two points: (1) The repetition of (2) The Definition o f Transference. Accord­ repressed needs does not exclude the search ing to the classical and current definitions, after pleasure. (2) Resistance, in conformity transference is essentially a displacement on the with the Pleasure Principle, is also a repetition; analyst of friendly, hostile and ambivalent thus repetition and motivation are not mutually emotions. Three principal objections to this exclusive. The development of experimental definition have been made: (1) the functional psychology during the years 1925-50 has also significance attributed to repetition is not tended to subordinate, or at least to link up, specified; (2) the dynamics of its unconscious repetition with motivation. One of the most motivations are left unexplained ; (3) the interesting examples in relation to the theory of positive, negative, or ambivalent character of transference is the Zeigarnik effect, that is to the transference gives us no right to infer the say the fact that unfinished tasks are more particular emotions transferred. According to easily remembered and more easily reverted to; it the author the displacement of affect on to the seems that failure plays a part in the persistence analyst must be considered as only a partial as­ of tension. In the light of the Zeigarnik effect, pect of the whole cycle of behaviour (motivation, transference can be considered as the activation methods, goal, object, effects); the link between in the psycho-analytical situation of an unsolved these different facets is the significance or conflict; injury to the narcissistic drives, con­ function of behaviour, that is to say. the quality sequent, according to Freud, upon the failure of through which it reduces the tensions of the infantile sexuality, is not just a reason for defence, organism and realizes its possibilities. The it evokes an unconscious demand tor reparation following hypothesis has been deduced: Trans­ and this, psycho-analytical practice often shows, ference is essentially transference of function, is a main function of transference. for instance, the defence against a need or an (5) Positive and Negative Effects o f Trans­ emotion, but expressed in terms furnished by ference. According to current definitions the the psycho-analytical situation. emotion experienced by the patient in relation (3) The Development o f Freud's Thought. The to the analyst reveals the positive or negative relationship between this hypothesis and Freud's character of transference. In the light of the thought differs according to the stage in the concepts of experimental psychology as regards development of his theory which is considered. the positive and negative effect of transference Until 1920 transference was regarded as the and basing himself on clinical evidence the result of the disposition to transfer (repressed author intends to define operationally the tendencies and fantasies) and of resistance meaning of transference by this effect on the (enacted repetition instead of remembering), learning of the fundamental rule. This defini­ that is to say in terms of the pleasure principle. tion is not opposed to the classical definition, From 1920 onwards (Beyond the Pleasure but is wider than and includes it. Negative Principle) transference was explained in terms transference corresponds to the prevalence of of the compulsion of repetition, that is to say, the defensive habits of the ego which seek independently of the pleasure principle. Un­ security in acquired solutions and the reduction fortunately the later works of Freud do not of tensions. Positive transference corresponds shed much light on the relationship of the to the formation of new habits based on re­ compulsion of repetition to the previously pressed needs and emotions, and an optimum formulated concepts. The question becomes a level of tension having been attained, favouring little clearer when we note that in the earlier the expression of the self and the realization of works Freud is primarily concerned with posi­ the patient’s potentialities. tive transference which helps to overcome the (6) Rôle of the Psycho-analyst and the Pro­ resistance, while in Beyond the Pleasure Prin­ duction o f Transference. The classical concep­ ciple he deals above all with negative trans­ tion has been summarized in the Freudian ference. allegory of the mirror-analyst; transference is a (4) The Need to Repeat and the Repetition of spontaneous phenomenon attributable to the Needs. Even if we admit the existence of a patient and explained in intra-individual terms. specific need to repeat, the question still remains We propose to reconsider this question in the B 10 DANIEL LAGACHE framework of the theory of a psycho-analytical thesis that the successive regressions, which field created by the interaction of the psycho­ become evident in the evolution of transference, analyst and of the patient, that is in terms of a are induced in part by the frustrating rôle of the psychology of inter-individual rôles. It has analyst. This approach is corroborated by been suggested that the negative traits of the examining the technical writings of Freud and analyst’s rôle (silence, passivity, etc.) should be the importance which he attributes to the rule considered as positive qualities, amongst which of abstinence in relation to the motivation of the frustration is outstanding. Hence the hypo­ patient and the progress of his treatment.

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