The Two-Way Transference in Psychoanalysis

Freud initially overlooked the concept of transference in psychoanalysis, particularly in the Dora case. This oversight stemmed from the one-way perspective of transference, which assumed it only flowed from the patient to the analyst. However, a dialectical understanding recognizes that there is also transference from the analyst to the patient, known as counter-transference. Counter-transference involves the analyst's prejudices, motivations, and desires, such as the obsessive desire to cure, which can become pathological.