President Selfie Transference
Barak Obama, President of the United States, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Prime Minister of Denmark, (bizarrely also is the daughter-in-law of former Labour leader Neil Kinnock) and a David Cameron the British Prime Minister joined together to take a photograph (selfie) of themselves on a mobile phone. Not acting like statespersons or just a bit of fun?

We have a strong relationship to leadership. We expect leaders to be confident, strong, decisive and competent. We wish to follow leaders. Who we follow and how we follow is laid down in our past.
Freud discovered that his patients or followers fell in love with him. Men or women: it did not matter. To Freud’s intelligence and credit he realised it was nothing to do with him. His patients were recreating early relationships – usually parents. Freud’s patients were transferring past relationships and experiences onto him.
He called this transference.

The leadership transference can be positive and negative. Put simply if in your early relationships if you were well led by your ‘leaders’ you might find it easy to trust leadership as an adult. If it was a difficult experience –  mistrust and doubt creep into your relationships with leaders.
Being managed or supervised at work brings out this transference in staff. People will like managers with different  management styles. A manager who is clear and direct to one person is cold and ruthless to another. A warm manager to one person is suffocating to another.

Our reaction to the President Selfie might be motivated by our transference to leadership. Unstatesperson like or funny? It was all there:- Leaders, Power, Death, & Sex!
Cameron in a rare piece of humour joked it would be rude to say no to a relative of a Kinnock.
President Selfie Transference

Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2013
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Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only.
This article is designed to provoke argument and critique.