The patient's transference experience of the analyst's gender: Projection, factuality, interpretation, or construction

Abstract

In this paper I reverse the more commonly posed question, how does the analyst's gender affect transference? Instead, I examine the implications of the analyst's view of the organization of transference in the analytic situation for understanding gender‐salient transference formation. I suggest that the analyst's viewpoint on the organization of transference is focal in his or her conception of gender‐linked transference themes. I demonstrate that even in the context of a shared theoretical outlook, variations in a one‐person psychology perspective on transference entail contradictory findings. I discuss a reformulation of transference, utilizing the contribution of self psychology. It demonstrates a combined one‐person, two‐person psychology view applied to the organization of a two‐dimensional transference. Gender‐specific, object‐related, and selfobject facets of the transference are codetermined by the patient's psychology and the current ongoing analyst‐patient interaction. I contrast conceptualizati...