The presence of the third party: systemic therapy and transference analysis

While today many therapists try to integrate different therapeutic models, it does not seem easy to define the specific clinical features of each model. In this article, the practice of systemic individual therapy is compared to the psychoanalytic practice of transference analysis. The relevant distinction is found in the different use of third parties within the therapeutic frame. In systemic therapy, the third party is ‘presentified’ within the therapeutic dialogue, which becomes centred on external relationships, while in transference analysis the third party is subsumed to the therapeutic (transferential) relationship, which is considered the core of therapy. The practical consequences of those two different ‘technologies of the self’ are discussed.