Quote:
Originally Posted by Xynesthesia
My problem with it is that it is often interpreted in a very superficial and stereotypical way by therapists who use the concept. For example, that it always comes from our relationships with caregivers, and what the client experiences with the therapist is a reflection of some feelings relative to parenting, needs unmet by caregivers etc. I think that such interpretations are often gross generalizations and can mislead a client seriously, also make them stuck in therapy "to work through it".
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I get that this can be a problem. However, I think this is the point where the client has to be active in his therapy. The therapist can offer an interpretation but surely no therapist is a mind reader and only the client has the power to confirm or disconfirm the interpretation.
Also, the interpretation only works when it is precise enough, thus although those overly general interpretations are probably more or less true for everyone, they are therapeutically powerless. Again, it is the clients job to reject overly general interpretations. I think it is really not so that the "wise" therapist tells things to the patient and the patient then dutifully tries to adapt himself according to these interpretations. I think the process (in very simplified terms) should be more that the therapist offers some understanding about the person and the person then tries to feel these words inside himself - if the words feel true then the offered understanding was correct. If the words don't play any chord inside the person then there can be two things: either the interpretation was wrong or the timing was wrong - I think it really doesn't matter which of them, in any case the interpretation was wrong at the moment and that's the only thing that matters.
This opinion is based on my own personal experiences by having been told interpretations. I have been actually told these general ones as well and at first they didn't make any sense to me at all because I was just so cut off from my feelings and emotions. As the feelings started to emerge, these general ones have started to make more sense (not all of them - I still have to check inside of me what seems to ring true for me and what not). But along the way there have been quite a few small but very precise interpretations that, if correct, somehow I have felt even on physical level. It's like you suddenly just feel that something was said that is spot on that you were not able to put into words before. And after that you have it, all for yourself. But of course, I have also been told many things that I don't feel have anything to do with me and so I have rejected these interpretations immediately. That has been my experience with (transference) interpretations. It's a collaboration.