Psychoanalysis: Transference

TRANSFERENCE: unconscious ideas that are transferred from one relationship to another.

Inspiration:

In therapy, the patient will inevitably develop a 'transference' towards the therapist - perhaps seeing the therapist as someone who has the 'answer' or will fix them; perhaps being very critical of the therapist in the same way they have been critical in their other relationships; perhaps falling in love with them; it is considered one of the main structural features of therapy. Freud considered a transference to be a copy of a pre-existing impulse or phantasy in which the therapist replaces some earlier person; that transferences have the same nature whether directed towards the therapist or towards another person, but that therapy offers a place to work through them and put them to rest, giving previous illnesses or repetitions a new meaning by working analytically with them. The crucial element to make this work is that the therapist must refuse to give in to the patient's demand, while at the same time not steering away from it or shutting it down - it's the therapist's job to trace it back to its origins.

Method:

The glass ball and person inside were created with black ink on paper using a sponge; this was then scanned, and in Photoshop the colours were manipulated and other elements added digitally.