The Concept of Erotized Transference

The Concept of Erotized Transference Harold P. Blum, M.D. IN THIS PAPER, I WILL REVIEW the concept of erotized transference and will explore its pathogenesis, dynamics, and some recurrent problems of its analytic significance and treatment. Because the term erotized transference has been defined and used in such a variety of ways in recent years, an exploration of its pathogenesis, dynamics, and analytic significance seems appropriate. Freud (1915) devoted a paper to the subject of transference love because it occurs so often and is so important in its real aspects, and partly because of its theoretical interest. What I have in mind is the case in which a woman patient shows by unmistakable indications, or openly declares, that she has fallen in love, as any other mortal woman might, with the doctor who is analysing her. This situation has its distressing and comical aspects, as well as its serious ones. It is also determined by ... many ... complicated factors (p. 159). Freud early recognized and understood erotic transference as a repetition of childhood experience and expectations. In his Observations on Transference Love (1915) he refers to love for the analyst as particularly blind, irrational, unrealistic, and infantile. The analytic situation and process foster the development of such erotic transference, with its demands for love and gratification. Freud knew that such love for the analyst was a defensive response and resistance, a childish attachment rather than mature