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In the passages read, "Übertragung" carries two senses. Sense 1, the clinical sense, is, in the treatment texts, the patient's carrying over onto the person of the physician of something that belongs elsewhere. It runs from 1895, where the patient «peinliche Vorstellungen auf die Person des Arztes überträgt» [GW I:308], to the Abriß (written 1938, published 1940), where he «Gefühle und Reaktionen auf ihn überträgt, die sicherlich diesem Vorbild gegolten haben» [GW XVII:100]. From 1910 the texts also widen its scope beyond the physician: it arises «in allen menschlichen Beziehungen» [GW VIII:55]. Sense 2 occurs only in the Traumdeutung pages. There it is a process in which intensity passes between ideas: an unconscious idea transfers its intensity onto a harmless preconscious idea. It «auf sie ihre Intensität überträgt und sich durch sie decken läßt» [GW II/III:568]. The main dated line runs inside Sense 1:
A reader must not miss two points. First, in the pages read the clinical sense (1895) is attested before the dream-book sense (1900), and no clinical text read refers back to the dream-book sense. Second, «Übertragungsneurosen» as a group of illnesses [GW XI:462] is not the artificial neurosis of the treatment [GW X:134].
In the passages read, "Übertragung" has two senses. The first is a clinical sense, in which the patient carries onto the physician something that belongs elsewhere and that the present situation of the cure does not explain. The second is a dream-book sense, found only in the Traumdeutung pages, in which an unconscious idea transfers its intensity onto a harmless preconscious idea and lets itself be covered by it. The clinical sense has a main dated line, with years taken from source labels unless stated otherwise: - In the Studien über Hysterie (1895) it is an obstacle working by false connection. - In the Bruchstück (1905, with a later undated layer on GW V:286) it is destined to be the greatest obstacle, and becomes the most powerful aid if it is guessed each time and translated to the patient. - In Über Psychoanalyse (1910) its scope widens beyond the physician to all human relationships. - In Zur Dynamik der Übertragung (1912; the pages print only the range 1909 to 1913, and on our reading it is no earlier than 1911) it is libido that has kept hold of infantile imagos. It appears at first as the strongest weapon of resistance, while its conscious positive component still carries the success. - The next stations are Zur Einleitung der Behandlung (1913), and Erinnern, Wiederholen und Durcharbeiten (1914), where it is a piece of repetition. - Then come Übertragungsliebe (1915, on our reading no earlier than 1914) and the Vorlesungen (1917). - In Jenseits des Lustprinzips (1920, on our reading no earlier than 1918) it is evidence for a repetition compulsion, which Freud frames as an assumption he ventures. - After the "Selbstdarstellung" (1925), the Abriß (written 1938, published 1940) has it reproduce the relation to the parents.
On our reading the clinical sense stays one sense, because its target and criterion stay the same while what is transferred, its role, its scope and the account of its origin change, and the later explanations accumulate rather than replace one another. No sense is shown abandoned. The clinical sense is kept to the last text read. False connection and the dream-book sense do not recur in the later pages read, which do not say that Freud gave up either. What he revises is his attitude, coming to see the process as lawful in 1895 and giving up the idea of a chance disturbance in 1917, the year in which he also revises his account of healing. On our reading the pages attribute the word to no one else and make no claim of coinage. Freud presents the clinical phenomenon as noticed before, as suggestibility, by Bernheim and the hypnotists, and he presents its grounding in libido and the room given to negative transference as new. He credits the father imago to Jung, ambivalence to Bleuler, a descriptive treatment to Stekel and the catalytic ferment image to Ferenczi, with whom he presents a definition of suggestion as shared. On our reading he disagrees with Adler's taking the accessory motives of transference love as essential. He presents the dream-book sense as taught by neurosis analysis, with no author named. The two senses coexist. In the pages read the clinical sense (1895) is attested before the dream-book sense, which is dated 1900 only by the source label of a layered text. No clinical text read refers back to the dream-book sense, and reading a shared mechanism into the two is a conjecture the texts do not draw. A reader must not confuse the "transference neuroses", a group of illnesses, with the artificial transference neurosis of the cure. Nor should transference be confused with counter-transference, with Übersetzung (the analyst's translating) or with the ordinary verb "übertragen". The dream-book sense must also be kept apart from the shifts of intensity inside the dream content, which the text does not call "Übertragung" though it draws no explicit line. It must likewise be kept apart from the resistance censorship and from the 1913 talk of the force of clinical transference.
Senses. 1. Transference onto the physician, 1895 to 1940 (Abriß written 1938): the patient directs at the physician something that belongs elsewhere and that the situation of the cure does not justify. 2. Transfer of intensity between ideas, Traumdeutung only (1900 by source label, layer of the passages not fixed): an unconscious idea transfers its intensity onto a harmless preconscious idea and lets itself be covered by it.
Where to read. - GW I:305-312 (Studien über Hysterie, 1895) - GW II/III:556-577 (Traumdeutung VII.C, 1900 by source label; the sense is attested at 558, 568, 569, 573) - GW V:279-286 (Bruchstück, Nachwort, 1905 by source label; later undated layer on 286) - GW VIII:52-60 (Über Psychoanalyse V, 1910) - GW VIII:364-374 (Zur Dynamik der Übertragung, 1912 by source label) - GW XVII:97-108 (Abriß, ch. 6, written 1938, published 1940)
The entry is drawn from the long entry below, which gives each sense with Freud's words, dates and pages.
Two senses are counted, because the texts give two definitions with different places in the theory: a relation of the patient to the physician in treatment, and a passage of intensity between ideas belonging to two systems. The clinical sense is kept as one sense from 1895 to 1940 although its explanation is revised several times. The reason is that the treatment texts fix the same core phenomenon and criterion, while the account of origin, what is transferred, and the scope all change [ii].
In Freud's words. - «Wenn die Kranke sich davor erschreckt, daß sie aus dem Inhalte der Analyse auftauchende peinliche Vorstellungen auf die Person des Arztes überträgt.» [GW I:308] (When the patient is frightened at finding that she is transferring onto the person of the physician painful ideas that emerge from the content of the analysis.) - «Es sind Neuauflagen, Nachbildungen von den Regungen und Phantasien, die während des Vordringens der Analyse erweckt und bewußt gemacht werden sollen, mit einer für die Gattung charakteristischen Ersetzung einer früheren Person durch die Person des Arztes.» [GW V:279] (They are new editions, copies of the impulses and fantasies that are to be awakened and made conscious as the analysis advances, with a replacement, characteristic of the kind, of an earlier person by the person of the physician.) - «dass er in ihm eine Wiederkehr — Reinkarnation — einer wichtigen Person aus seiner Kindheit, Vergangenheit erblickt und darum Gefühle und Reaktionen auf ihn überträgt, die sicherlich diesem Vorbild gegolten haben.» [GW XVII:100] (that he sees in him a return, a reincarnation, of an important person from his childhood or past, and therefore transfers onto him feelings and reactions that were surely meant for this model.)
What it means. In the treatment texts read, the clinical sense names something the patient directs at the physician that the present situation does not explain: «Wir meinen eine Übertragung von Gefühlen auf die Person des Arztes, weil wir nicht glauben, daß die Situation der Kur eine Entstehung solcher Gefühle rechtfertigen könne» [GW XI:459]. The 1925 text gives the same criterion: «die in den realen Verhältnissen keine Erklärung finden kann» [GW XIV:67].
What is transferred is named differently over time: - 1895: ideas, «peinliche Vorstellungen» [GW I:308]. - 1905: impulses and fantasies, «von den Regungen und Phantasien» [GW V:279]. - 1910: impulses, «zärtlichen, oft genug mit Feindseligkeit vermengten Regungen» [GW VIII:54]. - 1912: libidinal cathexis, «die erwartungsvoll bereitgehaltene Libidobesetzung» [GW VIII:365], and feelings, «die Übertragung zärtlicher Gefühle von der feindseliger» [GW VIII:371]. - 1917: feelings, «eine Übertragung von Gefühlen» [GW XI:459]. - 1925: an emotional relation, «eine intensive Gefühlsbeziehung» [GW XIV:67]. - 1938: «Gefühle und Reaktionen» [GW XVII:100].
Reading these wordings as one sense rests on the shared target (the physician) and the shared criterion (the present situation does not justify it) [ii].
From 1912 the phenomenon is divided: «Man muß sich entschließen, eine „positive" Übertragung von einer „negativen" zu sondern» [GW VIII:371]. In 1905 the pages contrast two settings, not two kinds of transference. Spontaneously the patient calls up only tender transferences: «daß der Kranke spontan bloß zärtliche und freundschaftliche Übertragungen zu seiner Heilung wachruft» [GW V:281]. In psychoanalysis, by contrast, all impulses are awakened: «alle Regungen, auch die feindseligen, geweckt» [GW V:281]. The hostile items there are impulses, not transferences set against tender ones. Reading this passage as a forerunner of the 1912 division is an interpretation [ii].
Hostile content carried onto the physician is nevertheless attested before 1912, without the words "positiv" and "negativ". In 1905: «Wo Regungen der Grausamkeit und Motive der Rache [...] sich während der Kur auf den Arzt übertragen» [GW V:284]. Dora's facial neuralgia is read as self-punishment for «der daraus auf mich bezogenen Racheübertragung» [GW V:286]. That sentence stands on GW V:286, the page whose main text this entry marks as containing a later layer of unfixed date (see 'When and where'). In 1910 the impulses directed at the physician are tender ones «oft genug mit Feindseligkeit vermengten» [GW VIII:54].
When and where. - 1895. Transference is the third of three main cases of a disturbed relation between patient and physician. The text ranks that disturbed relation as a whole as «das ärgste Hindernis, auf das man stoßen kann» [GW I:307]. It does not rank transference itself among the three cases. Transference is «häufig, ja in manchen Analysen ein regelmäßiges Vorkommnis» [GW I:308]. It works by «falsche Verknüpfung» [GW I:309]: a wish without its dating memories is linked to the physician «durch den im Bewußtsein herrschenden Assoziationszwang» [GW I:309]. The resistance arising from the three cases, of which transference is one, must be met: «Man kann keine Analyse zu Ende führen, wenn man dem Widerstande, der sich aus diesen drei Vorfällen ergibt, nicht zu begegnen weiß» [GW I:309]. - 1905. Transferences are new editions. Some are «einfache Neudrucke, unveränderte Neuauflagen», and others are revised: «Neubearbeitungen, nicht mehr Neudrucke» [GW V:280]. Transference is «diese letzte Schöpfung der Krankheit» [GW V:280]. It becomes «zum mächtigsten Hilfsmittel» if it is guessed and translated [GW V:281]. The pages print no date of composition. They carry the volume's running head «Werke aus den Jahren 1904-1905» [GW V:280] and internal time markers: «Erst fünf Vierteljahre nach Abschluß der Behandlung und dieser Niederschrift» [GW V:284]; on GW V:286 the year «(1902)» and «Es sind wiederum Jahre seit dem Besuche bei mir vergangen» [GW V:286]. The main text of GW V:286 therefore contains a later layer whose date the pages do not fix. A later addition, whose printed year «1027» is corrupt, points forward to the essay on «Übertragungsliebe» [GW V:281]. - 1910. Transference appears «Jedesmal» [GW VIII:54]. It is derived «von den alten und unbewußt gewordenen Phantasiewünschen des Kranken» [GW VIII:54], and it arises «in allen menschlichen Beziehungen» [GW VIII:55]. - 1912. The mechanism is «die Bereitschaft der Libido [...], die im Besitze infantiler Imagines geblieben ist» [GW VIII:370]. The pages print only the volume range 1909–1913. Their citation of Bleuler 1911 places the essay no earlier than 1911 [ii]. - 1913. A serviceable transference, «eine leistungsfähige Übertragung», is identified with «ein ordentlicher Rapport» [GW VIII:473], and transference is treated as a source of force [GW VIII:478]. - 1914. «die Übertragung ist selbst nur ein Stück Wiederholung» [GW X:130]. - 1915. Transference love is «durch die analytische Situation erzwungen» [GW X:308]. The pages place this essay only after a cited 1914 text [ii]. - 1917. The patients' tendency to transference, the «Übertragungsneigung», is named as an intensification of a general capacity: «Die Übertragungsneigung der genannten Neurotiker ist nur eine außerordentliche Steigerung dieser allgemeinen Eigenschaft» [GW XI:464]. Suggestion is traced back to transference [GW XI:469]. - 1920. Transference is the field in which «immer ein Stück des infantilen Sexuallebens, also des Ödipuskomplexes und seiner Ausläufer» is repeated [GW XIII:17]. The repetition of experiences that brought only unpleasure is driven by a compulsion: «Sie wird trotzdem wiederholt; ein Zwang drängt dazu.» [GW XIII:20]. The pages imply composition no earlier than 1918 [ii]. - 1925. Transference is «ein allgemein menschliches Phänomen» [GW XIV:68]. - 1938/1940. «Da die Übertragung die Beziehung zu den Eltern reproduziert, übernimmt sie auch deren Ambivalenz» [GW XVII:101]. The transference relation also hands the analyst the superego's power: «so räumt er ihm auch die Macht ein, die sein Überich über sein Ich ausübt» [GW XVII:100]. The recapitulation «lassen uns die Autorität seines Überichs übertragen» [GW XVII:107] restates this advantage [ii].
In the treatment texts, two things stay constant [ii]: the physician as the target within the treatment, and the criterion that the present situation does not explain what is directed at him. The scope does not stay constant. From 1910 it widens beyond the physician. Transference arises «in allen menschlichen Beziehungen» [GW VIII:55]. In 1914 repetition goes onto «alle anderen Gebiete der gegenwärtigen Situation» [GW X:130]. In 1925 «sie beherrscht überhaupt die Beziehungen einer Person zu ihrer menschlichen Umwelt» [GW XIV:68]. The double role in treatment, obstacle and aid, is attested from 1905 [GW V:281]. The 1895 pages present transference as an obstacle whose working-through added no real extra work [GW I:310], not as an aid.
The named source changes: - 1895: a man from «vor vielen Jahren» [GW I:309]. - 1905: «einer früheren Person» [GW V:279]. In the Dora case this is a parent, «daß ich ihr in der Phantasie den Vater ersetzte» [GW V:282], and also a contemporary figure: «„Jetzt haben Sie eine Übertragung von Herrn K. auf mich gemacht.“» [GW V:282]. Neither is called infantile. - 1910: old fantasy wishes that have become unconscious [GW VIII:54]. - 1912: infantile imagos [GW VIII:370]. A father imago may be decisive, the term used «nach Jungs glücklichem Ausdruck» [GW VIII:366], but transference «kann auch nach der Mutter- oder Bruder-Imago usw. erfolgen» [GW VIII:366]. - 1913: a continuation of the imago account. The physician is placed among the imagos, «eine der Imagines jener Personen an, von denen er Liebes zu empfangen gewohnt war» [GW VIII:474]. The new element is that these are imagos of persons from whom the patient was used to receiving love. - 1915: infantile prototypes, said of every love, transference love included: «Es gibt keine, die nicht infantile Vorbilder wiederholt.» [GW X:317]. - 1920: the Oedipus complex [GW XIII:17], and the tender attachment «meist an den gegengeschlechtlichen Elternteil» [GW XIII:19]. - 1925: the earliest object cathexes, «von seinen frühesten Objektbesetzungen, aus der verdrängten Periode seiner Kindheit» [GW XIV:68]. - 1938: «einer wichtigen Person aus seiner Kindheit, Vergangenheit» [GW XVII:100], with the analyst «in der Regel an die Stelle eines Elternteils, des Vaters oder der Mutter, gesetzt» [GW XVII:100].
The explanation changes as well: false connection, then libido, then repetition, then repetition compulsion, then reproduction of the parental relation. All years are taken from the source labels unless stated otherwise.
Freud's own or taken over. The pages attribute the term to no one else and make no claim of coinage [ii]. The ways the name is introduced are these: - 1905: impersonally, as a name «welchen man den Namen „Übertragungen“ verleihen kann» [GW V:279]. - 1910: «sogenannten» [GW VIII:54] marks the word as an established name, without saying whose. - 1917: the fact is named in the first person plural: «Die neue Tatsache, welche wir also widerstrebend anerkennen, heißen wir die Übertragung.» [GW XI:459]. - 1925: the word is an abbreviating name [GW XIV:67].
Separately, in 1895 Freud names the mechanism, not the term, himself: the «Mésalliance — die ich falsche Verknüpfung heiße» [GW I:309].
For the concept, the pages present the phenomenon as already noticed and used before, under another name. Freud says of Bernheim: «Seine Suggestibilität ist nichts anderes als die Neigung zur Übertragung, etwas zu enge gefaßt» [GW XI:464], and that analytic technique gave up hypnosis «um die Suggestion in der Gestalt der Übertragung wiederzuentdecken» [GW XI:464]. In 1925 transference is «denselben dynamischen Faktor, den die Hypnotiker Suggerierbarkeit genannt haben» [GW XIV:68]. What the pages present as new is the grounding in libido, which Bernheim «nicht erkannt» [GW XI:464], and the room given to negative transference [GW XI:464].
Freud credits others with neighbouring terms or descriptions: - Stekel treated the theme «in deskriptiver Weise» [GW VIII:364]. - The term «Vater-Imago» is used «nach Jungs glücklichem Ausdruck» [GW VIII:366]. - «Ambivalenz» is Bleuler's coinage [GW VIII:372]. - Suggestion, in a definition Freud presents as shared with Ferenczi, is «die Beeinflussung eines Menschen vermittels der bei ihm möglichen Übertragungsphänomene» [GW VIII:372]. The image of the physician as catalytic ferment comes «nach einem vortrefflichen Worte von S. Ferenczi» [GW VIII:55]. - Adler took the accessory motives of transference love «als das Wesentliche des ganzen Vorganges» [GW X:311]. Freud calls these motives «Beiwerk, das in reineren Fällen auch wegbleiben kann» [GW X:311], which implies disagreement [ii].
Abandoned or kept. The sense is kept up to the last text read [GW XVII:100]. In the pages read, Freud revises his own attitude to it in the following places: - 1895: he was at first annoyed at the extra work «bis ich das Gesetzmäßige des ganzen Vorganges einsehen lernte» [GW I:310]. - 1917: he reports having first taken the tender tie for a chance disturbance: «Die ersten Male konnte man etwa glauben, die analytische Kur sei auf eine Störung durch ein zufälliges, d. h. nicht in ihrer Absicht liegendes und von ihr nicht hervorgerufenes Ereignis gestoßen.» [GW XI:459]. Its regular recurrence makes him give this up, «dann müssen wir doch die Idee eines störenden Zufalles aufgeben» [GW XI:459], and recognise «daß es sich um ein Phänomen handelt, welches mit dem Wesen des Krankseins selbst im Innersten zusammenhängt» [GW XI:459].
A further 1917 revision concerns the account of the healing process, not the attitude to transference as such: «Nun haben wir allen Grund, unsere frühere dynamische Auffassung des Heilungsvorganges zu verbessern» [GW XI:463]. Here the relation to the physician, rather than insight, becomes what decides the outcome.
The Dora case does not belong in this count. The main text locates the failure in the handling of transference: «Es gelang mir nicht, der Übertragung rechtzeitig Herr zu werden» [GW V:282]. A footnote, which is an undated later layer and not datable to 1905 from the pages, relocates the technical error to the failure to communicate the homosexual current toward Frau K.: «desto wahrscheinlicher wird mir, daß mein technischer Fehler in folgender Unterlassung bestand» [GW V:284]. This concerns where the error lay, not Freud's attitude to transference.
The 1895 mechanism of false connection does not recur in any later text read. The texts read do not say whether Freud gave it up.
Not to be confused with. - The artificial transference neurosis versus the group of illnesses. The artificial neurosis of the cure is «seine gemeine Neurose durch eine Übertragungsneurose zu ersetzen» [GW X:134], also called «die Übertragungskrankheit» [GW XI:473]. The nosological group is «„Übertragungsneurosen“» [GW XI:462], and its patients are the «Übertragungsneurotiker» [GW XI:472]. - Übersetzung (translating). This is the analyst's act of conveying meaning, as in «dem Kranken zu übersetzen» [GW V:281]. It is a different word. - Gegenübertragung. This is on the physician's side: «einer etwa bei ihm bereitliegenden Gegenübertragung» [GW X:308]. - The ordinary verb "übertragen". An example is «auch auf den gesunden Menschen zu übertragen» [GW XI:475], where assumptions are carried over from neurotics to healthy people. - Sense 2. In the Traumdeutung pages, intensity passes from an unconscious idea onto a preconscious idea [GW II/III:568]. That is a relation between ideas of two systems, not something a patient directs at a person. See the next section.
In Freud's words. - «Es ist dies die Tatsache der Übertragung, welche für so viele auffällige Vorfälle im Seelenleben der Neurotiker die Aufklärung enthält.» [GW II/III:568] (This is the fact of transference, which contains the explanation of so many striking occurrences in the mental life of neurotics.) - «auf sie ihre Intensität überträgt und sich durch sie decken läßt» [GW II/III:568] (transfers its intensity onto it and lets itself be covered by it.) - «sich mit einer Regung aus dem Bewußten zu alliieren, ihre große Intensität auf deren geringere zu übertragen.» [GW II/III:558] (to ally themselves with an impulse from the conscious, to transfer their great intensity onto its lesser one.)
What it means. An unconscious idea cannot enter the preconscious as such. It acts there only by connecting with a harmless idea that already belongs to the preconscious [GW II/III:568]. The receiving idea thereby «zu einer unverdient großen Intensität gelangt» (reaches an undeserved high intensity), and its content is either left «unverändert» or modified [GW II/III:568].
This explains why every dream contains a link to a recent impression, which is often of the most indifferent kind: «daß jede Traumanalyse eine Verwebung eines rezenten Eindrucks nachweist, und daß dies rezente Element oft von der gleichgültigsten Art ist» [GW II/III:569]. The day residues supply «die notwendige Anheftung zur Übertragung» [GW II/III:569]. Here "vorbewußt" is used in the systematic sense, because the text speaks of an idea belonging to the preconscious [ii]. The formulation also treats intensity as detachable from the idea that carries it [ii].
When and where. This sense is found only in S02, at GW II/III:558, 568, 569 and 573. Its date of 1900 comes from the source header. The printed text is layered. One footnote cites 1916/18 [GW II/III:560]. Another refers to «des später von der Psychoanalyse erkannten Über-Ichs» [GW II/III:564]. A further reference cites a paper of «1908, Ges. Werke, Bd. VII» [GW II/III:575]. The layer to which the transference passages belong therefore cannot be fixed from the pages, and "1900" is the date of the source label, not of these passages.
The verb use (a wish onto a wish of the same wording [GW II/III:558]) and the noun use (an idea onto an indifferent idea [GW II/III:568]) hold together only when restated as one movement of intensity from the unconscious to the preconscious. Verdict: RECONNECT. The condition placed on the target differs between these uses of the word itself. In the verb use the conscious wish must awaken an unconscious wish of the same wording: «einen gleichlautenden unbewußten zu wecken» [GW II/III:558]. In the noun use the preferred targets are ideas «die entweder als indifferent außer Beachtung geblieben sind» [GW II/III:569]. The text does not reconcile the two conditions. Verdict: HOLD TENSION. The phrase «die Tatsache der Übertragung sowie die Psychosen belehren uns» [GW II/III:573] repeats the wording of GW II/III:568, so it most likely carries the same sense [ii].
Freud's own or taken over. The sense is presented as a fact taught by neurosis analysis: «das uns die Analyse der Neurosen kennen lehrt» [GW II/III:569]. The choice of target idea is explained by «ein bekannter Satz aus der Assoziationslehre» [GW II/III:569]. No author is named for either.
Abandoned or kept. No later text read uses the word in this sense. The 1925 summary of dream theory has the unconscious wish as «der eigentliche Traumbildner» [GW XIV:70], without the word "Übertragung". This is an absence in the pages read. The texts read do not say that Freud abandoned the sense.
Not to be confused with. - Shifts of intensity inside the dream content. Elements that «Intensität abbekommen» and the «Verschiebungen der Traumarbeit» [GW II/III:567] are not called "Übertragung". The text draws no explicit line between the two. - The censorship. «Widerstandszensur» [GW II/III:569] is a separate factor that also favours indifferent elements. - The clinical "Intensität". The phrase «wenn die Übertragung ihre Intensität zur Überwindung der Widerstände verwendet hat» [GW VIII:478] concerns the force of clinical transference, not intensity passing between ideas.
The two senses coexist in time. In the pages read, neither text replaces the other. Sense 2 claims to rest on neurosis analysis and to explain occurrences in neurotics [GW II/III:568–569]. The pages do not say which occurrences are meant, so identifying them with clinical transference is a conjecture [iii]. In the pages read, the clinical texts do not invoke Sense 2. The 1912 essay cites dreams only for the characters of unconscious processes, «wie wir sie durch das Studium der Träume kennen gelernt haben» [GW VIII:374].
A structural parallel is visible. In 1895 the wish is linked to the physician as a person «welche ja die Kranke beschäftigen darf» [GW I:309]. In 1905 revised transferences «vermögen selbst bewußt zu werden, indem sie sich an irgend eine geschickt verwertete reale Besonderheit an der Person oder in den Verhältnissen des Arztes anlehnen» [GW V:280]. In 1912 the transference idea reaches consciousness «weil sie auch dem Widerstande Genüge tut» [GW VIII:369]. All three may be read as unconscious material reaching consciousness by attaching to something available, as in Sense 2. This reading is a conjecture that the texts themselves do not draw [iii].
Within Sense 1, the 1895 form could be counted as a separate sense, because it gives a different mechanism and a narrower role. It is kept together with the later form because the 1905 argument repeats the 1895 one [ii]. In 1895 it seemed to make no difference to success whether the repulsion was worked through «im historischen Falle oder im rezenten mit mir» [GW I:310]; the text says «es schien für den Erfolg gleichgültig» [GW I:310]. In 1905 it «kann ihm ja gleichgültig sein, ob er die betreffende Regung des Kranken in Verbindung mit seiner Person oder mit einer anderen zu überwinden hat» [GW V:281].
The later explanations accumulate rather than replace one another. The libido account (1912) still stands in 1917 [GW XI:464], next to the repetition account (1914) [ii].
On what the lasting result rests on, the verdict is RECONNECT. The verbal clash between 1912 «beruhten auf Suggestion» and 1917 «beruht nicht auf der Suggestion» holds once restated: in 1912, 1917 and 1925 alike, suggestion is the means and the patient's psychic work is the ground of the lasting result [ii]. The 1938 suspicion attaches to cures obtained under positive transference, and so fits this restatement [ii]. What remains in conflict is the relation of suggestion to transference itself, and this conflict runs within the 1917 text as well as across years. In 1917 Freud himself uses identity wording: «Seine Suggestibilität ist nichts anderes als die Neigung zur Übertragung, etwas zu enge gefaßt» [GW XI:464]. The audience's question at GW XI:466, quoted above, restates an admission that the text ascribes to the analysts themselves ('we'), not to the audience alone. In 1925 transference is called «denselben dynamischen Faktor, den die Hypnotiker Suggerierbarkeit genannt haben» [GW XIV:68]. Against these stands the 1917 «Zurückführung der Suggestion auf die Übertragung» [GW XI:469], which makes transference the more basic of the two. On whether suggestion is identical with transference or derived from it, the verdict is HOLD TENSION. - Memory. The aim is to turn «Wiederholung in Erinnerung» [GW XI:461], yet once transference reaches its full importance «tritt die Arbeit an den Erinnerungen des Kranken weit zurück» [GW XI:462]. Verdict: HOLD TENSION. - External or content (1895). The tension lies between the class and its sub-case. The class of disturbed relations to the physician, to which transference belongs as the third case, is classed as an obstacle that is «kein inhaltliches, sondern ein äußerliches» [GW I:307]. The transference sub-case draws its material «aus dem Inhalte der Analyse» [GW I:308]. The text does not reconcile the classification of the class with what it reports of this sub-case. Verdict: HOLD TENSION. - Choice of target in Sense 2 [ii]. At GW II/III:569 the preferred targets of transference are ideas «die entweder als indifferent außer Beachtung geblieben sind, oder denen diese Beachtung durch Verwerfung alsbald wieder entzogen wurde» [GW II/III:569]. At GW II/III:562, where the word "Übertragung" is not used, a dominating worry is the point of attachment: «Je dominierender diese Sorge war, desto gewaltsamer durfte die herzustellende Verbindung sein» [GW II/III:562]. The direction also differs. There the day thought seeks attachment to the unconscious wish: it «mußte sich auf irgendeinem Wege die Anknüpfung an einen infantilen, nun unbewußten und unterdrückten Wunsch verschaffen» [GW II/III:562]. Setting the two passages against each other is a construction of this entry. Verdict: HOLD TENSION. - Source of what is transferred (a dated shift, not a contradiction). - Infantile source: in the pages read, an infantile source is not stated for transference before 1912 [GW VIII:370]. The 1910 lecture's «alten und unbewußt gewordenen Phantasiewünschen» [GW VIII:54] points to an earlier origin but does not call it infantile [ii]. - Parental and recent figures: a parental figure is already named in 1905 («daß ich ihr in der Phantasie den Vater ersetzte» [GW V:282]), alongside a contemporary one, Herr K. [GW V:282]. In 1895 the original object is a man from years before [GW I:309]. - In 1912 the imagos may be the father's, mother's or brother's: transference «kann auch nach der Mutter- oder Bruder-Imago usw. erfolgen» [GW VIII:366]. In 1913 the text continues this imago account. The physician is placed among the imagos: «eine der Imagines jener Personen an, von denen er Liebes zu empfangen gewohnt war» [GW VIII:474]. It adds that these are imagos of persons from whom the patient was used to receiving love. - The later texts keep an infantile or parental source: «infantile Vorbilder» in 1915 [GW X:317]; in 1920 the Oedipus complex [GW XIII:17] and the tender attachment «meist an den gegengeschlechtlichen Elternteil» [GW XIII:19]; the earliest object cathexes of childhood in 1925 [GW XIV:68]; and in 1938 an important person «aus seiner Kindheit, Vergangenheit» [GW XVII:100], with the analyst «in der Regel» put in a parent's place [GW XVII:100].
| German (verbatim) | Anchor | English rendering | What it establishes |
|---|---|---|---|
| «Die Übertragung auf den Arzt geschieht durch falsche Verknüpfung» | GW I:308 | Transference onto the physician happens through false connection | The first clinical use in the pages read, and its mechanism (1895) |
| «Dies ist häufig, ja in manchen Analysen ein regelmäßiges Vorkommnis.» | GW I:308 | This is frequent, indeed in some analyses a regular occurrence | In 1895 it is not claimed for every analysis |
| «Es ist dies die Tatsache der Übertragung, welche für so viele auffällige Vorfälle im Seelenleben der Neurotiker die Aufklärung enthält.» | GW II/III:568 | This is the fact of transference, which explains so many striking occurrences in neurotics' mental life | Sense 2 is named |
| «auf sie ihre Intensität überträgt und sich durch sie decken läßt» | GW II/III:568 | transfers its intensity onto it and lets itself be covered by it | Sense 2 as transfer of intensity |
| «Die psychoanalytische Kur schafft die Übertragung nicht, sie deckt sie bloß, wie anderes im Seelenleben Verborgene, auf.» | GW V:281 | The cure does not create transference; it merely uncovers it, like other hidden things | Transference is not an artefact of the cure (1905) |
| «Die Übertragung, die das größte Hindernis für die Psychoanalyse zu werden bestimmt ist, wird zum mächtigsten Hilfsmittel derselben, wenn es gelingt, sie jedesmal zu erraten und dem Kranken zu übersetzen.» | GW V:281 | Transference, destined to be the greatest obstacle, becomes its most powerful aid if it is guessed each time and translated to the patient | The double role (1905) |
| «Die Übertragung stellt sich in allen menschlichen Beziehungen ebenso wie im Verhältnis des Kranken zum Arzte spontan her» | GW VIII:55 | Transference arises spontaneously in all human relationships, as in the patient's relation to the physician | Widened scope (1910) |
| «Der Mechanismus der Übertragung ist zwar durch ihre Zurückführung auf die Bereitschaft der Libido erledigt, die im Besitze infantiler Imagines geblieben ist» | GW VIII:370 | The mechanism is settled by tracing it to the readiness of libido that has kept hold of infantile imagos | Libido explanation (1912) |
| «So erscheint uns die Übertragung in der analytischen Kur zunächst immer nur als die stärkste Waffe des Widerstandes» | GW VIII:370 | In the cure transference at first always appears only as the strongest weapon of resistance | Transference as resistance (1912) |
| «Wir merken bald, die Übertragung ist selbst nur ein Stück Wiederholung und die Wiederholung ist die Übertragung der vergessenen Vergangenheit nicht nur auf den Arzt, sondern auch auf alle anderen Gebiete der gegenwärtigen Situation.» | GW X:130 | Transference is itself only a piece of repetition, and repetition is the transference of the forgotten past onto the physician and onto all other areas of the present | Repetition explanation (1914), with two scopes |
| «Man hat kein Anrecht, der in der analytischen Behandlung zutage tretenden Verliebtheit den Charakter einer „echten“ Liebe abzustreiten.» | GW X:317 | One has no right to deny the love emerging in treatment the character of genuine love | Transference love is genuine (1915) |
| «Wir meinen eine Übertragung von Gefühlen auf die Person des Arztes, weil wir nicht glauben, daß die Situation der Kur eine Entstehung solcher Gefühle rechtfertigen könne.» | GW XI:459 | We mean a transfer of feelings onto the physician, because the situation of the cure cannot justify their arising | The criterion of the clinical sense (1917) |
| «die darum mit Recht als „Übertragungsneurosen“ zusammengefaßt werden.» | GW XI:462 | which are therefore rightly grouped together as "transference neuroses" | The nosological compound |
| «Seine Suggestibilität ist nichts anderes als die Neigung zur Übertragung, etwas zu enge gefaßt, so daß die negative Übertragung keinen Raum darin fand.» | GW XI:464 | His suggestibility is nothing but the tendency to transference, too narrowly conceived, leaving no room for negative transference | Relation to Bernheim's suggestibility |
| «werden wir den Mut zur Annahme finden, daß es im Seelenleben wirklich einen Wiederholungszwang gibt, der sich über das Lustprinzip hinaussetzt» | GW XIII:21 | we shall find the courage to assume that there really is in mental life a repetition compulsion that overrides the pleasure principle | Transference behaviour as evidence for the compulsion (1920); the compulsion is an assumption Freud says he will venture, and the next page restates it as a condition («Wenn es aber einen solchen Wiederholungszwang im Seelischen gibt» [GW XIII:22]) |
| «Die Phänomene der Übertragung stehen offenkundig im Dienste des Widerstandes» | GW XIII:22 | The phenomena of transference evidently serve the resistance | The resistance valence in 1920 |
| «Durch solche Wendung wird die Übertragung aus der stärksten Waffe des Widerstandes zum besten Instrument der analytischen Kur.» | GW XIV:68 | Through this turn transference changes from the strongest weapon of resistance into the best instrument of the cure | Handling resolves the double role (1925) |
| «Da die Übertragung die Beziehung zu den Eltern reproduziert, übernimmt sie auch deren Ambivalenz.» | GW XVII:101 | Since transference reproduces the relation to the parents, it also takes over their ambivalence | The last formulation read (1938/1940) |
| Source | Work | GW pages |
|---|---|---|
| S01 | Studien über Hysterie (1895) | GW I:305–312; cited 307–310 |
| S02 | Traumdeutung VII.C (1900) | GW II/III:556–577; several pages read but not drawn on |
| S03 | Bruchstück, Nachwort (1905) | GW V:279–286 |
| S04 | Über Psychoanalyse V (1910) | GW VIII:52–60; used 52–57 |
| S05 | Zur Dynamik der Übertragung (1912) | GW VIII:364–374 |
| S06 | Zur Einleitung der Behandlung (1913) | GW VIII:470–478 |
| S07 | Erinnern, Wiederholen und Durcharbeiten (1914) | GW X:126–136 |
| S08 | Übertragungsliebe (1915) | GW X:306–321 |
| S09 | Vorlesungen XXVII (1917) | GW XI:447–465; 448 and 452 not drawn on |
| S10 | Vorlesungen XXVIII (1917) | GW XI:466–482 |
| S11 | Jenseits des Lustprinzips III (1920) | GW XIII:16–22 |
| S12 | "Selbstdarstellung" (1925) | GW XIV:66–70 |
| S13 | Abriß ch. 6 (1940, written 1938) | GW XVII:97–108 |
The S04 pages are not a single layer: a footnote cites a 1918 edition, «Wien 1907, 2. Aufl. 1918» [GW VIII:54]. The transference passages themselves stand in the main text; the pages do not show whether it was revised.
Loci not read: - Die endliche und die unendliche Analyse (1937). - Konstruktionen in der Analyse (1937). - The case histories other than Dora. - The earlier page of the Studien cited for "falsche Verknüpfung" («vgl. S. 121», GW I:309). - The «an anderer Stelle» referred to in GW XIII:18. - Zur Geschichte der psychoanalytischen Bewegung (1914), cited at GW X:307 as the place where Freud said the same transference situation delayed psychoanalytic therapy by its first decade.
No extract reports a page missing from the scan. OCR damage is noted at ten places: - GW V:280: «Sublimierung» is reconstructed. - GW V:281: the addition year is printed «1027». - GW VIII:54: the page prints «von den alten und unbewußt gewordenen Phantasie wünschen des Kranken». It is silently repaired to «Phantasiewünschen» in the quotes used in Sense 1 and Tensions held. - GW VIII:366: the page prints «als/Trägerin der Heilwirkung, j als». It is silently repaired to «als Trägerin der Heilwirkung» in the quote used in Tensions held. - GW VIII:370: the page prints «als die j stärkste Waffe des Widerstandes,,». It is silently repaired in the quote used in Key passages. - GW XI:464: the page prints «so daß die negative Übertragung keinen Kaum darin fand». «Kaum» is an OCR error for «Raum» and is silently repaired in the quote used in Key passages. - GW XIII:18: the page prints «daß es die „Suggestions Wirkung“ der Kur ist». It is silently repaired to «Suggestionswirkung» in the quote used in Tensions held. - GW XIII:19: the page prints «meist an den gegengeschlechtlichen Elternteiî». It is silently repaired to «Elternteil» in the quotes used in Sense 1 and Tensions held. - GW XIII:21: the page prints «einen Wiederholungszwang gibt, der sich über das Lastprinzip hinaussetzt». «Lastprinzip» is an OCR error for «Lustprinzip» and is silently repaired in the quote used in Key passages. - GW XIV:67: the participle after «abkürzend» is garbled and omitted.
The pages read also carry the following, which this edition does not yet integrate:
First edition, November 2026. Built from the German text of Freud's Gesammelte Werke only, read source by source; every German quotation was checked against the page it cites. References give volume and page, for example [GW X:291]. English renderings are our own. A mark [ii] means our interpretation of the passages, [iii] a synthesis across texts; unmarked sentences report what the pages say. Each long entry says which texts were read and which were not. Entries are revised as the reading continues; corrections are welcome at contact@llulllab.com.