Metaphor and transference

Abstract

This article aims to point out the way that transference, in the psychoanalytical process, can be understood as a metaphor. We developed a graphic, in analogy of Searle's one, to understand transference as a dead metaphor (though yet alive, in the sense of Lakoff and Johnson) which can be brought to the dimension of speech in the analytical setting, where the analyst should maintain oneself in resonance with one's neutrality and the patient between repetition and working through work. To finalize, an excerpt of a clinical case is presented to illustrate the topics that are discussed.

Metaphor; transference; psychoanalysis