ABSTRACT
I became interested in vertigo a long time ago-when Luc first came to consult me: he complained of vertigo and asked for psychoanalysis. His vertigo hampered him considerably, not only in his social and leisure activities, but also in his professional life. He had previously seen a number of physicians who had failed to detect a somatic cause. In the end, his family doctor, who had found Luc in perfect health, had advised him to consult a psycho-analyst. Luc had hesitated; he had first tried self-analysis, reading Freud and using introspection, but his vertigo had become more acute. He had then decided to see a psychoanalyst: he felt vaguely that his vertigo might be connected with his way of relating to people important to him; he also sensed that, if relationship problems were really involved, communication with the analyst would help him to get to the bottom of them. Actually, though he had not thought it through, Luc felt vaguely that he was in danger of repeating his relationship problems in the transference, and hoped that the analyst might help him to bring these problems into the open and to change them.
