This article attempts to describe a common human relationship as it has been developed in two traditions which are today largely separated from one another. The relationship is referred to as "confidential" in the law and as "transference" in psychoanalytical psychology. Legal insight on the phenomenon is found mainly in the appellate literature on gratuitous transfers obtained by undue influence; psychological insight occurs in the practice and speculation of therapists who have discovered the phenomenon in psychotherapy. Both traditions are useful in understanding the confidential or transference factor in human interaction. The interaction itself has impact beyond the appellate cases or the practice of psychotherapy. It is, for one relevant instance, of central importance in legal counseling.