Transference is the trauma reenactment narrative. It was first identified and named by Freud. He was working primarily with women who lost feeling in a limb as a result of childhood sexual abuse trauma, called a Conversion Disorder (the psychological trauma of sexual abuse is “converted” into a physical disorder of paralysis.
The patient “transfers” the patterns (expectations) of their childhood trauma onto the blank-screen psychoanalyst. That’s why the psychoanalyst sits behind the patient, who lays on a coach and free associates, just says whatever comes into their mind… for an hour… several times a week.
This creates a therapeutic situation in which the patient “transfers” the patterns of their childhood trauma – their expectations created by childhood trauma – onto the analyst, who then interprets the patient’s expectations and how they bias and distort the patient’s perceptions.
That’s the transference – the transfer of trauma patterns. The construct of transference is from the world of psychoanalysis – Freud and the couch.
In the world of cognitive-behavioral therapy (lab rats in a Skinner box), the construct is “schemas” patterns of expectations we develop based on our “learning history.”
In the world of attachment theory, the construct is “internal working models” – the expectations we develop for relationships.
In the world of trauma it is called the trauma reenactment narrative, the storyline created by trauma that is added to all future relationships – the typical pattern being “abusive” parent/”victimized” child/”protective” parent. People are enticed and manipulated to play out the roles in the person’s trauma reenactment narrative.
In your families, the child is enticed and manipulated into the “victimized child” role, which then automatically creates the “abusive parent” role for the targeted parent (irrespective of what the actual parenting by the targeted parent is), and the also allows the allied parent to adopt (and conspicuously display) the coveted role as the all-wonderful “protective parent” – a reenactment of the childhood trauma story – the transfer of this childhood storyline to current relationships.
Craig Childress, Psy.D.
Clinical Psychologist, PSY 18857
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