A Neurobiological Model of Perception: Considerations for Transference

Transference is a key concept in psychoanalysis, distinguishing the analytic technique from other forms of psychotherapy. In this essay, we place transference into the context of a general psychology of human functioning and link it to the neurobiology of perception. Despite the centrality of transference in psychoanalysis, the concept remains poorly defined and has been discussed in terms of many competing and contradictory perspectives. Little literature exists that views transference as a form of intentional action and perception, and most conceptualizations describe it in terms of emotional, person-oriented reconstitution of earlier attachments. We briefly review the literature within and outside of psychoanalysis, define transference through the lens of perception and propose that it is ubiquitous in humans. When not impaired, transference is an adaptive ego function that emerges, along with countertransference, in the context of any interpersonal situation of significant emotional import. We draw upon Freeman's research on olfaction, which has since been replicated in other sensory modalities, for a neurodynamic basis for our model of perception and describe how transference may be thought of as an evolved form of it. Our view is that transference is a hierarchically integrated perceptual modality of a higher order, though it depends upon the same neurodynamic processes as those found in each sensory modality. 3 A. INTRODUCTION Transference, in my view, is a very special mental quality that has never been satisfactorily explained. (Bird, p. 267) Transference remains a cornerstone of all psychoanalytic theory and practice. Psychoanalysts know it well, and while they may define it differently, all view it as a key to understanding their patients' problems and as a crucial tool in helping them to become better. 1 Neuroscientists may be less familiar with the term, though one can generally think of it as a critical factor in how the past carries forward into the present in human relationships and situational expectancies, whether that carrying forward is adaptive or not. We will assert two fundamental points: 1) the value of understanding transference from the standpoint of a perceptual cycle of acting-into one's world as one predicts, discovers, creates and transforms it and oneself, and 2) the utility of having a neurobiological platform from which to view (albeit at a much more complex level) transferential processes. We will argue that transference can best be understood as a special kind of action-perception cycle that is distinctively human, though we shall trace this form …