ABSTRACT
Transference concerns the influence on analytical practice of the new understanding of infant care which has, in turn, derived from analytical theory. Freud was able to formulate a theory of the very early stages of the emotional development of the individual at a time when theory was being applied only in the treatment of the well-chosen neurotic case. At that time theory was groping towards a deeper insight into the matter of the mother with her infant, and indeed the term "primary identification" implies an environment that is not yet differentiated from that which will be the individual. The behaviour of the analyst, represented by what the author has called the setting, by being good enough in the matter of adaptation to need, is gradually perceived by the patient as something that raises a hope that the true self may at last be able to take the risks involved in starting to experience living.
