A Clinical-Quantitative Examination of Consensus on the Concept of Transference

This is the first clinical-quantitative study by psychoanalysts, to the best of our knowledge, on a systematically defined concept of transference. The aim was to learn whether clinical judges could agree about the amount of transference expressed and the basis for their agreement or disagreement when judging the same samples from a tape-recorded psychoanalysis. The four independent judges showed significant agreement; agreement was higher when the focus was upon a smaller unit, the "objects," than when the judgment was of a whole segment. They also had higher agreement when judging the importance of an object and the potential for transference than in judging transference currently manifested.