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Chapter Three – Research methods and their use - Page 103
perhaps repeatedly. In the current research setting, generally it is the eventual product of
the researcher’s free associations that become the focus of the work. In previous studies
(e.g. Devereux, 1967), participants have contributed dreams and associations.
The noting of counter-transference
I defined and described counter-transference in Chapter Two Part One. Here, I want to
show how it is used as part of the transformation of data. The Example below is an
account of the beginning of a semester like the one in the study, involves the use of my
counter-transference.
The noting of transference
In Chapter Two Part One, I gave a definition of transference as the bringing (or transfer,
or projection) of a past experience into a present one, such that the present is
unconsciously experienced as if it were the past (Freud, 1914/1958). Along with many
others, I believe that this is a ubiquitous phenomenon, since memory and desire play a
major role in perception.
What is important here is the extent to which transference is taking place in any
situation, and the significance that it has for understanding interactive processes. I
believe that an example of significant transference occurs in Session Ten, to be
discussed at length in Chapter Five (A Beginning). I am thinking particularly of the way
that Kelly seems deeply invested in the group and in the teaching and learning, to the
extent that she is eager to come even when she has been quite seriously unwell with a
major physiological syndrome.