Freud and the early analysts discovered the transference phenomenon and were initially confused and astounded at what occurred in these "remarkable circumstances". They even began to doubt the basic premises of psychoanalysis until an explanation allowed transference to become the cornerstone of the psychoanalytic technique. It has since spread into all fields of dynamically based psychotherapy and became an essential aspect of most of them.Transference was originally understood to be a process whereby the patient transfers his feelings and wishes onto the person of the therapist who has come to represent someone from the patient's past. For psychoanalysis, this process is absolutely essential to work effectively with a patient. For other forms of psychotherapy, transference has come to play a similar or less central role, depending on the particular theoretical approach, while in some cases it is either combined with or confused with projection. The result is, as „Das Vokabular der Psychoanalyse” explains, that due to its various usages, transference is difficult to define clearly. Today, there is no consensus even within the individual disciplines, and the result is not only confusion about what transference is, but also confusion about whether or not it is occurring at a specific time, and if it is, what to do about it.