ABSTRACT
As psychoanalysts of the Italian Psychoanalytical Society with interests in couple and family psychoanalysis, the authors present a clinical case in order to promote the project of sharing theoretical approaches and examine ways of meeting patients and their methodologies so that their work with couples and families can improve. From the start, sessions were characterised by their concerns both about their parenting experience and their personal histories. Both engaged readily in self-reflection. The analyst's simple listening triggered reflections and narratives—more from Lydia—that occupied whole sessions, as if both had been waiting for someone to listen. Treatment ended by general agreement after two years. Lidia and Paolo felt they had been able to re-think and re-narrate their story, acknowledging its collusive aspects and the affinity of experience, such as the mutual comfort of their relationship at the expense of libidinal aspects.
