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[[Displacement ]] of the [[transference]], also called lateral transference, is a [[defense ]] in which transference is directed away from the [[analyst ]] to a [[third ]] party or an [[activity ]] that both conceals and represents undesirable aspects of [[The Transference|the transference]]. The [[idea ]] of displacement of the transference originated in [[Freud]]'s technical writings. In "On beginning the [[treatment]]" (1913), Freud cautioned [[analysts ]] [[about ]] sessions that were too infrequent, which allowed the [[analysis ]] to wander down side paths, and about [[patients ]] who discussed their treatment with closefriends every day, which would [[cause]] a "leak" in the analysis and the transference.In "[[Remembering]], [[repeating]], and [[working]]-through" (1914), he also said that the [[patient]]'s transference is revealed "not only in his personal attitude to his doctor but also in every [[other]] activity and [[relationship]] which may occupy his [[life]] at the [[time]]" (p.151).
Later, other authors (for example, [[Daniel Lagache]] and Michel Neyraut) mentioned displacement of the transference when discussing transference, usually [[speaking]] of it as [[resistance]] of a sort. Not until the [[work]] of [[Alain]] Gibeault and Evelyne Kestemberg (1981) was a positive [[role]] attributed to it. For these authors, the displacement of the transference prevents only the [[awareness]] of the transference, not the [[analysand]]'s [[unconscious]] [[cathexis]] in the analysis and with the analyst. In the analysand, the [[external]] [[object]] nevertheless maintains a [[symbolic]] link with the analyst and really represents the [[internal]]-[[object relation]] resulting from the [[repetition]] of an [[infantile]] [[experience]]. These authors nevertheless recognize that the displacement of the transference, even if it is sometimes useful (notably in cases of [[character]] [[neurosis]], where it moderates the direct confrontation with an archaic [[imago]] that is too threatening), may also interrupt the [[analytic]] [[process]] if it becomes too fixed and impervious to [[interpretations]].
In the work of François Duparc, the displacement of the transference has been linked to analysands' difficulties in representing [[traumatic]] experiences in their histories and in connecting the affects mobilized by treatment to sufficiently elaborated representations. Thus the displacement of the transference could be considered as a less [[apparent]] aspect of [[negative]] transference, that is, of the invisible transference that Freud complains about in "[[Analysis Terminable and Interminable|Analysis terminable and interminable]]" (1937) in connection with his analysis of Sándor Ferenczi. Lateralization of the transference would be a primary defense and counter-cathexis of a nonrepresentable or not yet represented experience. By means of a displacement of the transference, the patient might be trying to protect the analyst from a violent [[discharge]] in the transference, which the analyst could not bear without a traumatizing counter-transferential reaction.
One can describe a range of transferences, according to their greater or lesser lateral aim: the direct transference, which in the [[case]] of traumatic [[material]] induces disturbing and strange counter-transferential experiences; transference on a [[model]], which is more protective because the model is the inert part of the transference that limits the involvement of nonrepresentable experiences; and finally displacement of the transference, which aims at protecting both the patient and the analyst from a traumatic outbreak.
FRANÇOIS DUPARC
See also: [[Counter-transference]]; Negative therapeutic reaction; Transference.
[[Bibliography]]
* Duparc, François. (1988). Transfert latéral, transfert du négatif. Revue française de psychanalyse, 52 (4), 887-898.
* Freud, Sigmund. (1913). On beginning the treatment (further recommendations on technique of psycho-analysis I). SE, 12: 121-144.
* ——. (1914). Remembering, repeating, and working-through (further recommendations on the technique of psycho-analysis II). SE, 12: 145-156.
* ——. (1937). Analysis terminable and interminable. SE, 23: 209-253.
* Gibeault, Alain, and Kestemberg, Evelyne. (1981). Le personnage tiers. Cahiers du Centre pour la psychanalyse et la psychothérapie, 3, 1-84.
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