Transference: historico-philosophical note.

Abstract

Transference as a term in philosophy has been used by Kant and Fichte from the end of the 18th century. By the end of the next one it became widely used. Freud's first "definition" of the term transference (1895) is, as far as daily use of it is concerned, the most precise one and in closet symphony with the early ones in philosophy. The later formulations of his, are dim and vague. But even in this respect they follow the path this metaphore has already passed in the works of Dilthey: from a specific descriptive notion to an all-encircling concept. These uncertainties of meaning, depleated its practical value. Further studies might be of, both, theoretical and practical importance, only if discipline will be applied in defining and testing its definitions. To proceeed further in scholastic disputations is senseless.