Nicole Capracotta
English 12 Honors
Mrs. Pimental
18 May 2015
Transference
According to Freud, Transference is when the patient transfers his or her earlier psychosexual conflicts onto the relationship between them and their therapist. For example, someone who is going through the Oedipus complex may transfer his or her feelings of hatred for their parent of the opposite sex onto their therapist. Transference does not always occur between the patient and therapist however. It can occur between family members, friends, and other people or things that the patient admires. Peter Shaffer showcases the Freudian theory of transference through characters such as Alan and his mother, Alan and horses and Alan and
Dysart in the intriguing and profound play
Equus.
Alan and his mother have always had a very odd relationship with each other, especially when Alan was a child. Throughout the play, it is obvious that Alan’s mother Dora and father
Frank do not get along very well, and hardly ever agree on anything, especially on how to raise
Alan. Dora is always whispering religious prophecies into Alan’s ear. His father disagrees with this was of raising their child, but notices that there is not only a strange religious connection but also a strange personal connection between his wife and son. “FRANK: They’ve always been thick as thieves. I can’t say I entirely approve­ especially when I hear her whispering that Bible to him hour after hour, up there in his room” (Shaffer 33). This connection between Alan and his mother is very unusual because it is the type of relationship that one would usually have with

their husband rather than their son. Because Frank would not accept Doras religious ways Dora started to confide her religious beliefs into someone who she knew would accept her, her son.
When Alan starts to believe in Dora’s religion and agree with her, her feelings that she should have for her husband get transferred into her relationship with her son. At this age, Alan is in the phallic stage of psychosexual development. “
During the phallic stage the primary focus of the libido is on the genitals. At this age, children also begin to discover the differences between males and females. Freud also believed that boys begin to view their fathers as a rival for the mother’s affections. The Oedipus complex describes these feelings of wanting to possess the mother and the desire to replace the father” (Cherry 1). Alan is very close with his mother during the phallic stage, and because Frank is so distant he does not imagine him as a rival. He knows that he does not need to compete for his mother's affection. This therefore teaches Alan that not only does he not need to compete with his father, but that his and his mother’s relationship is sacred. This relationship shows the feelings that Dora had for Frank being transferred into Alan because of his psychosexual development and her relationship with her husband.
Alan has always held God in a very high place, due to his mother enforcing her religious beliefs onto him. He even had a picture of christ hanging in his room that he admired everyday.
One day however, because he does not agree with this religion, Alan’s father replaces the picture of Christ with a picture of a horse. In this picture, the horse is facing forward, staring straight at you. “DORA: In all fairness I must admit it was a little extreme. The Christ was loaded down with chains, and the centurions were really laying on the stripes. It certainly would not have my choice, but I don’t believe in interfering too much with children, so I said nothing. DYSART:
But Mr. Strang did? DORA: He stood it for a while, but one day we had one of our tiffs about

religion, and he went upstairs, tore it off the boy’s wall and threw it in the dustbin. Alan went quite hysterical. He cried for days without stopping ­ and he was not a crier, you know.
DYSART: But he recovered when he was given