APA Dictionary of Psychology

in self psychology, a narcissistic transference that, when activated in treatment, results in the patient experiencing the analyst or therapist as a powerful and benevolent parental figure. When engaged in this form of transference, the patient feels protected and able to share in the power and capabilities of the therapist, much as a young child idealizes their parents and feels protected by them. Compare mirror transference; twinship transference. [first described by Austrian-born U.S. psychoanalyst Heinz Kohut (1913–1981)]