ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author would like to convey her thinking about working with patients who present psychosomatic disorders. It addresses in particular how a primitive psychically unprocessed conflict is relived in the transference relationship via the psychosomatic symptom. The chapter distinguishes two main approaches: one that sees the symptom as a product of psychic conflict and another that places the accent on a deficiency or deficit in the patient’s psychic structure and on the lack of a capacity to function symbolically. M. Klein regards phantasy as a basic mental activity, rooted in the body and present in rudimentary form from birth onwards. Isaacs described it as “the primary content of unconscious mental processes”, the psychic representative of instinct. Isaacs described it as “the primary content of unconscious mental processes”, the psychic representative of instinct. Projective identification has mainly two motives: communication and evacuation.
