Transference
Etymology
A translation of Sigmund Freud’s German "Übertragung," from Latin "transferre" (to carry across), built from "trans-" (across) and "ferre" (to carry). Freud noticed patients "carrying over" feelings about figures from their past onto the analyst, and made this central to psychoanalytic treatment.
noun · /TRANS-fur-ence/
The unconscious redirection of feelings from an important past relationship onto a person in the present.
What it names
A powerful lens for relationships: when you react to a boss, partner, or therapist with an intensity that belongs to a parent or old flame, transference names why the present is being colored by the past.
Example
She realized her flash of resentment toward her manager was transference — he simply stood where her exacting father used to.
Related idea
Distinct from projection, which places your own disowned traits onto another; transference replays a whole pattern of feeling from a specific earlier relationship onto someone new.