24,656
edits
Changes
no edit summary
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 [[resistance]] which impedes the recall of repressed memories, an obstacle to the treatment which must be 'destroyed'.<ref>Freud, 1905e: SE VII, 116</ref>
Gradually, however, he modified this view, coming to see the transference also as a positive factor which helps the treatment to progress.
