[en] The effective interaction which determines the elastic scattering of heavy composite systems consists of a ''bare'' real potential V, noramally identified with the folding model, a renormalization term or ''polarization potential'' ΔV and an imaginary ''absorptive potential'' iW. The latter contributions originate from the couplings to intrinsic degrees of freedom. While iW is a conspicuous feature of all optical model analyses, the related term ΔV has received relatively little attention until recently. The microscopic structure of ΔV + iW is examined using second-order semi-classical perturbation theory. Focus is on the long-range part of ΔV which is governed by single-particle transfer reactions between the colliding systems