Transference Neurosis in a Three-Year-Old Child

In the authors’ therapeutic work with infants and mothers, they emphasize what the child can bring to the understanding of his/her problem. This contrasts with other approaches that tend to emphasize parental phantasms. We hypothesize that our counter-transferential attitude helps the toddler’s transference to blossom and that therapy focuses on its interpretation and its resolution, without, however, neglecting the mother’s role. In the presentation of this case, the child develops a genuine transference neurosis in a brief mother-infant psychotherapy setting with a couple of therapists.