So-called "transference" projections are said to manifest in therapy because the therapist is a blank slate, they possess special qualities like a rare sort of empathy, therapy is a "safe space", and so on.
But isn't this the real reason...
"The reason for the potency of the therapeutic transference is precisely in that withdrawal of the therapist: it is because their contribution to the therapeutic space is so fraudulent that the need arises to imagine, to fantasize about what the therapist would be like in a more real, or more desirable state of affairs."
If a relationship has artifice at the center of it then, logically, whatever feelings arise from it are liable to be at least partly false and invalid, maybe mostly so. Is the client supposed to overlook this and pretend they are having an authentic interaction that models real life? Are therapy consumers to believe that a fake relationship is the basis for healing real relationships? Why does everyone accept this so uncritically?
ps: I'd like to hear other thoughts on debunking transference myths and hype.
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