Page 177 - DEDU502_GUIDANCE_AND_COUNSELING_ENGLISH

Unit 16: Interview Process in Counseling

a psychoanalyst. The existentialist does not believe that transference implies the transfer of a client’s Notes
feelings for his family members to the therapist. The neurotic is one who has not grown beyond the
restricted forms of experience characteristic of a child in most affective areas of development. Hence,
in later years he perceives others or the therapist in the same manner as he perceived his father or
mother as a child. The problem of transference for the neurotic client is primarily one of relationship
to events in the present and his perception of the present situation in terms of his past experience.
Transference
Transference could be positive or negative in nature. Positive transference involves the expression
of feelings of affection or dependency, and negative transference the expression of feelings of hostility
and aggression towards the counselor. A counselee may react to the counselor as he would react to
his parent. Sometimes the affective reaction could be a negative one in which the counselee may feel
(erroneously of course) that the counselor has contempt or anger for him. The counselee sometimes
shows positive affective reactions, such as adoration, and the counselee is often unconscious of his
reactions towards the counselor.
Wood (1951), discussing transference in client-centered therapy and psychoanalysis, gives the
following illustration : During the second interview his client observed “...it seemed to me that as
we were talking along, that you, not only as a counselor but you as an individual were getting sort
of excited about this thing too, just as I was. And that, well, at times, you were no longer a counselor
to me, but you were just another person that I was talking over this problem with”. During the
fourth interview the client observed, “as a matter of fact, a peculiar thing, I hate to admit it (laughs)
is that, except in the last two interviews, I don’t believe I’ve been much concerned with your
reflections. You probably realize I have been moving pretty fast and somewhat running up middle
of your spine at times without, uh, knowing it, desiring to go ahead. A sort of manic euphoria
(laughs). But I guess I have done enough to you today”.
In therapeutic use, the counselor does not view transference as a porblem, but as a situation in
which the client gives the therapist valuable information on how he perceives his world. Thus, the
transference realtionship is a rich source of interpersonal data. Rogers (1942) belives that the feelings
of tnasference develop when the client perceives that the ‘other’ person (counselor) understands
him better than the understands himself. Intially, that is, before transference there is no relationship
between the client and the counselor which involves transference. After the initial contact and
development of relationship which widens eventually to provide a situation for the apperance of
transference, the client’s identification with the counselor becomes stronger, leading to transference.
When transference is resolved the client withdraws his projections, culminating the therapy.
Therapeutic Function of Transference
Strong transferences towards the counselor are often complicated. But transference of a less intense
nature serves to build the relationship by allowing the client to express distorted feeling without
the usual counter-defensive responses. Transference promotes the client’s confidence in the counselor
through his handling of the transference feelings. Such feelings help to amplify the client’s emotional
involvement with the problem and enable him to continue the counseling relationship. Transference
further helps the client become aware of the origin of his feelings in his present life situation through
interpretation. The transferred feelings along with maladaptive behaviour tend to disappear when
insight is gained and more satisfying and mature relationships with people are established. The
counselor should not fit himself into the client’s projections so as to satisfy the client’s neurotic
needs. If the counselor does this, there is a possibility that the projections will be perpetuated by
being reinforced.

Counter-transference
Counter-transference is the prpjection of the counselor’s feelings toward the client. In this the
counselor is reacting in a similar fashion as the client transferring his feelings. Counter-transference,
therefore, refers to the emotional reactions and projections of the counselor to the client. This could

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