Quote:
Originally Posted by Perna
The term "kick the dog" has to do with transference; the guy gets yelled at by his boss and can't reply for fear he'll get fired, comes home and yells at his wife that dinner's 5 minutes late and she yells at the kid for dropping his ice cream and he kicks the dog for getting the ice cream instead of him. We cannot make our parents love and care for us the way we want to be loved and cared for and, when we are very young, can't even articulate what we want (so are less likely to get it, especially if we have non-emotionally-astute parents; you are hungry and your mother changes your wet diaper, that sort of thing) or understand why we get one thing and not the other.
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So Perna, when my T recently said he didn't want to "kick the dog" while it was down? What does
THAT mean? Just curious?
Retro_chic, do you think you might be experiencing transference? It's ok. It's very normal in therapy and (like Perna said) everyday life, to have transferential feelings. Often times, when we have positive feelings about someone we rarely know it is because they remind us, fondly, of someone from our past. I try to always be "curious" about the transference and ask T when I have questions. I hope you will consider discussing it with your T.