Types of institutional transference.

Abstract

Institutional transference is a common clinical phenomenon. The patients in whom it was originally described represent but one subset of this entity. The author describes four types of patients who manifest institutional transference and demonstrates how and why it develops. He notes that institutional transference does not preclude transference and emotional attachment to an individual clinician, and emphasizes that understanding which type of institutional transference appears in a patient aids the diagnosis and treatment of that patient.