What is Transference and Countertransference? (opens in new tab)

What is transference? Historically the term "transference" refers to the feelings, fantasies, beliefs, assumptions and experiences unconsciously displaced on the therapist that originate in the patients' past relationships. More recently, transference is seen as the here and now, valid experience the patient has of the therapist. It is "a mixture of real characteristics of the therapist and aspects of the patient's figures from the past—in effect, it's a combination of old and new relationshi...