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The term ' In [[psychoanalysis]], [[transference' ]] (''transfert'') refers to the [[process]] by which [[affect]] and [[desire]] originally associated with one person, such as a parent or sibling, are [[unconscious]]ly shifted to another person, especially to the [[analyst]].<ref>http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=transference</ref> ==Transference and Freud==The term [[transference]] first emerged in [[Freud]]'s work as simply another term for the [[displacement ]] of [[affect ]] from one idea to another.<ref>see Freud, 1900a: SE V, 562</ref>

The use of a special term to denote the patient's relationship to the analyst is justified by the peculiar character of this relationship. Freud was first struck by the intensity of the patient's affective reactions to the doctor in [[Breuer]]'s [[treatment ]] of [[Anna O ]] in 1882, which he argued was due to the [[patient ]] transferring [[unconscious ]] ideas onto the doctor.<ref>Freud, 1895d</ref>As he developed the psychoanalytic method, Freud first regarded the transference exclusively as a [[resistance]] which impedes the recall of [[repression|repressed ]] [[memories]], an obstacle to the treatment which must be 'destroyed'.<ref>Freud, 1905e: SE VII, 116</ref>

==Transference and Jacques Lacan==Lacan's thinking about [[transference ]] goes through several stages. His first work to deal with the subject in any detail is '''An Intervention on the Transference'','<ref>Lacan, 1951</ref> in which he describes the transference in dialectical [[dialectic]]al terms borrowed from [[Hegel]]. He criticises [[ego-psychology ]] for defming defining the transference in terms of [[affect]]s; "Transference does not refer to any mysterious property of affect, and even when it reveals itself under the appearance of emotion, it only acquires meaning by virtue of the dialectical moment in which it is produced."<ref>Ec, 225</ref>

In other words, Lacan argues that although transference often manifests itself in the guise of particularly strong affects, such as [[love]] and [[hate]], it does not consist of such emotions but in the [[structure ]] of an intersubjective relationship. This structural definition of transference remains a constant theme throughout the rest of Lacan's work; he consistently locates the essence of transference in the [[symbolic ]] and not in the [[imaginary]], although it clearly has powerful imaginary effects. Later on, Lacan will remark that if transference often manifests itself under the appearance of love, it is first and foremost the [[love of knowledge ]] (''savoir'') that is concerned.

This time he conceives it not in terms borrowed from Hegelian dialectics but in terms borrowed from the [[anthropology ]] of exchange.<ref>Mauss, LÈvi-Strauss</ref>

Transference is implicit in the [[speech act]], which involves an exchange of signs [[sign]]s that transforms the speaker and listener: In its essence, the efficacious transference which we're considering is quite simply the speech act.

In the seminar of the following year, he continues to elaborate on the symbolic nature of transference, which he identifies with the [[compulsion to repeat]], the [[insistence ]] of the symbolic determinants of the [[subject]].<ref>S2, 210-11</ref>This is to be distinguished from the imaginary aspect of transference, namely, the affective reactions of [[love ]] and [[aggressivity]]. In this distinction between the symbolic and imaginary aspects of transference, Lacan provides a useful way of understanding the paradoxical function of the transference in psychoanalytic [[treatment]]; in its symbolic aspect ([[repetition]]) it helps the treatment progress by revealing the [[signifiers ]] of the subject's [[history]], while in its imaginary aspect (love and hate) it acts as a [[resistance]].<ref>see S4, 135; S8, 204</ref>

Lacan's next approach to the subject of transference is in the eighth year of his seminar,<ref>Lacan, 1960-1</ref> entitled simply 'The Transference'. Here he uses [[Plato]]'s [[Symposium ]] to illustrate the relationship between the [[analysand ]] and the [[analyst]]. Alcibiades compares Socrates to a plain box which encloses a precious object (Grk ''[[agalma]]''); just as Alcibiades attributes a hidden treasure to Socrates, so the analysand sees his object of [[desire ]] in the analyst (see [[objet petit a]]).