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Transference (German: Übertragung) is a phenomenon within psychotherapy in which repetitions of old feelings, attitudes, desires, or fantasies that someone displaces are subconsciously projected onto a here-and-now person.[1][2][3] Traditionally, it had solely concerned feelings from a primary relationship during childhood.[4][3]
Transference is the projection of feelings, attitudes, or desires onto a significant other such as a therapist (Levy & Scala, 2012).
Transference is the client's unconscious shifting to the analyst of feelings, attitudes, and fantasies (both positive and negative) that are reactions to significant others in the client's past. Transference involves the unconscious repetition of the past in the present. 'It reflects the deep patterning of old experiences in relationships as they emerge in current life' (Luborsky et al., 2011, p. 47). [...] Not every positive response (such as liking the therapist) should be labeled 'positive transference.' Conversely, a client's anger toward the therapist may be a function of the therapist's behavior; it is a mistake to label all negative reactions as signs of 'negative transference.'
Transference is the process whereby clients project onto their therapists past feelings or attitudes they had toward their caregivers or significant people in their lives. Transference is understood as having its origins in early childhood and constitutes a repetition of past themes in the present. [...] Transference is not a catch-all concept intended to explain every feeling clients express toward a therapist. Many reactions clients have toward counselors are based on the here-and-now style the counselor exhibits.
I do not think it is of any consequence whether we keep or drop the term transference, provided we divorce it from the one-sidedness of its original meaning: the reactivation of past feelings.