What Is Negative Transference?

Freud believed that transference was a psychological experience that originated in childhood and was revived in psychoanalysis. While he discussed both positive and negative transference, I believe Melanie Klein’s concept of envy is the single most important contribution to our understanding of negative transference.

“Envy is the angry feeling that another person possesses and enjoys something desirable—the envious impulse being to take it away or to spoil it.” Klein said that envy occurs in a dyad and goes back to the original relationship with the mother. (Melanie Klein, Writings of Melanie Klein, Volume III, Envy and Gratitude, Free Press, New York, pg. 181.)

Roberta Satow

According to Klein, the first object to be envied is the feeding breast—with feeding comes envy. Hence, it is not surprising that many patients experience envy of their psychoanalyst since he or she “feeds” the patient with insight and support. Two major defenses against envy in analysis are the patient's need to devalue the analysis and indifference to the analyst. Both defenses are parts of a negative transference. In the following case of Sally, the patient’s envy of my ability to “feed” her was in play before she stepped into my office. She experienced our relationship as a zero-sum game; anything I had to offer was experienced as a reflection of her emptiness.

When my friend and colleague, Jessica, called to refer Sally, she said, “She’s an analyst, really smart and a great person. You’re going to love her.”

Sally arrived at my office about 10 minutes before her appointment began. When I opened the door to the waiting room to invite her in, I saw a tall, thin, woman with gray hair. She was dressed simply in a gray wool skirt and black turtleneck sweater, but there was something elegant, almost aristocratic in the way she carried herself when she got up from glancing at a magazine and entered my office. I felt instantly inferior to her.

I greeted her, “Hello Sally, why don’t you come in.” I invited her to sit wherever she was comfortable. Then I sat in my chair and faced her silently. I thought about the fact that she was a more experienced analyst than I was. If she had never been in treatment before, I might have waited a minute and if she was silent said, “So tell me what brought you to see me.” But since she was an analyst herself, I just waited for her to tell me why she came.

“Let me tell you about my history.” Her face was expressionless as she pulled aside her long gray hair that was partially covering her right temple and continued. “When I was five years old I was in front of my house waiting for the school bus with my younger brother. A car ran me over and I almost lost my right eye. I was in the hospital for months. They saved the eye, but I have this scar.” She pointed to a slightly indented grayish patch of skin that started at the edge of her eye socket and extended to her hairline. I made an inaudible noise and grimaced to express my understanding that this was a traumatic experience. But she continued before I could utter a sentence.

“Then when I was 15, my mother, brother, sister and I were going to California to see my maternal grandmother who was dying. My father dropped us off at the airport in Chicago and then before we got on the plane, a policeman came and told my mother that my father and his driver were in a car accident and my father was dead.”

I gasped in disbelief that so much tragedy had befallen her at such a young age. But she continued telling the story without affect as if she were giving me a chronology of what she did over the weekend. I wanted to say something empathic to her, but I would have had to interrupt her to do it. I decided to listen until she gave me an opportunity to speak.

When Sally finished telling me the history she thought was relevant for me to know, she turned to telling me about her present life. She told me she had a husband, son and daughter. Then she got around to why she came.

“I’ve come because I’m depressed. I was terribly depressed a few years ago and went into couples therapy with John. It helped, but I’m depressed again and I’m also worried about my son. He doesn’t have a job and I’m afraid he’s not doing the right things to get one. Also, I’m going to be 60 and I feel terrible about it…”

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“You haven’t said anything all session. You just sat there like a silent analyst. I guess you’re quite orthodox or maybe you’re just inexperienced.”

I felt “put down” and misunderstood. I needed to say something, but the session was almost finished and I was feeling furious at her. I was afraid I would blurt out something angry. I dug my nails into the palms of my hands to try and get control over myself.

“Well, we’re going to have to stop in a minute. But I think it’s a good thing that you’ve come because it sounds like you’ve experienced a great deal of trauma and loss. Turning 60 seems to be a catalyst for re-experiencing those feelings again.”

I knew I was going to be in for a rocky ride with Sally.

If a negative transference develops in the course of an analysis, after a working alliance has developed, the patient and analyst can work through the negative feelings together. The analysis of envy allows the patient to integrate split off parts of the self and mitigate hatred with love. But if the patient's need to devalue the analysis and show indifference to the analyst is in place when the treatment begins, it can prevent a working alliance from developing and prevent the patient from taking in and appreciating what the analyst has to offer. Klein pointed out that gratitude is essential in building up the relation to the good object and appreciating the goodness in the self.

(For a further discussion of Sally's treatment, see Roberta Satow, Our Time is Up, 2024.)