Countertransference

//kaʊntətɹansˈfəːɹəns// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The transference of a therapist's own unconscious feelings to their patient; unconscious or instinctive emotion felt towards the patient. countable, uncountable

    "‘She had a very unusual, difficult childhood. I guess, what with her history and all, she brings out these fatherly feelings of countertransference in me.’"

  2. 2
    the psychoanalyst's displacement of emotion onto the patient or more generally the psychoanalyst's emotional involvement in the therapeutic interaction wordnet

Example

More examples

"‘She had a very unusual, difficult childhood. I guess, what with her history and all, she brings out these fatherly feelings of countertransference in me.’"

Etymology

From counter- + transference, a calque of German Gegenübertragung.

More for "countertransference"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.