Transference: co-constructed or brought to the interaction?

Contemporary understandings of transference diverge around the issue of whether transference is co-constructed by both parties to the analytic interaction or brought to it by each participant. Examining the evolution of the concept of transference distills some of the issues inherent in this controversy. It is suggested that each of these conceptualizations contributes something essential to the development of a broader picture of the way transference functions in the clinical setting. If transference is viewed as a process operating along a continuum of repression, both co-construction of the interaction and the primitive wishes, fears, and fantasies brought to the interaction can be parsimoniously accounted for. Adaptive and archaic transference activity are distinguished, and the two dimensions of transference, dynamically interconnected, are shown to be essential aspects of analytic understanding.