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=Freudian Dictionary=
<blockquote>The patient sees in his analyst the return-the reincarnation-of some important figure out of his childhood or past, and consequently transfers on to him feelings and reactions that undoubtedly applied to this model. It soon becomes evident that this fact of transference is a factor of undreamed-of importance-on the one hand an instrument of irreplaceable value and on the other a source of serious dangers. This transference is ''ambivalent'': it comprises positive and affectionate as well as negative and hostile attitudes toward the analyst, who, as a rule, is put in the place of one or other of the patient's parents, his father or his mother. So long as it is positive it serves us admirably. It alters the whole analytic situation and sidetracks the patient's rational aim of becoming well and free from his troubles. Instead of it there emerges the aim of pleasing the analyst, of winning his applause and his love. This becomes the true motive-force for the patient's collaboration; the weak ego becomes strong; under the influence of this aim the patient achieves things that would otherwise be beyond his power; his symptoms disappear and he seems to have recovered-all of this simply out of love for his arralyst. ... Therapeutic successes that take place under the sway of the positive transference are under the suspicion of being of a ''suggestive'' nature. If the negative transference gains the upper hand they are blown away like spray before the wind.<ref>{{OoPA}} Ch. 6</ref></blockquote>
{{Freudian Dictionary}}
==definition==
