ABSTRACT
In Mr. B's unconscious scenarios and impulses, being in a relationship meant submitting to cruelty or perpetrating a sadistic revenge. In the ending phase of the analysis, the analyst brought Mr. B, ineluctably, into a partially interpreted and partially enacted sadomasochistic relationship with herself. The analyst's idea that the patient's sadomasochistic provocative words and behaviours had defended against annihilation anxiety was confirmed. The analyst experienced, understood, and put into words, the impact of the early trauma on the infantile unconscious sexual fantasies. Interpretation of sexual fantasies and sadistic impulses, as well as the analysis of enactments and containment of projective identifications, helped to facilitate the therapeutic action. In Mr. B's unconscious scenarios and impulses, being in a relationship meant submitting to cruelty or perpetrating a sadistic revenge. Nancy R. Goodman's paper concludes with a modest but condensed articulation of the changes the analysis facilitated in Mr. B.
