Commentary on Transactions in the Context of Transference

Abstract

A major premise in Erskine's (1991) important theoretical synthesis deserves reconsideration. He suggests that, in a therapeutic context, transference transactions can be distinguished from non-transference transactions. An alternative view is that transference regulates and shapes transactions because the preformed transference creates a unique context which evolves into the intersubjective field. The reciprocal field, in turn, systemically regulates the transactional content and process of therapeutic dialogue. Thus, the field is always transferentially bound. In inferring otherwise, there is a potential for unnecessary misunderstandings of the meanings of transferential transactions that the clinician has labeled “nontransferential.”