Transference

Intensity — the best enemy of intimacy

People seek intensity. In relationships, in experiences, in therapy itself — there is a pull towards the overwhelming, the dramatic, the all-consuming. Intensity feels like aliveness. It feels like proof that something real is happening.

Philippe Jacquet’s clinical observation, built over decades of practice, is the opposite: intensity is the best enemy of intimacy. The more intense the feeling, the less likely it is that you are actually seeing the person in front of you.

Transference — when the past arrives in the room

Transference is the unconscious process by which a patient redirects feelings, expectations, and relational patterns from past significant relationships onto the analyst. In Jungian work, it is not a complication to be managed — it is the primary vehicle of change.