ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the business transaction in light of how it might be defined by other psychoanalytic writers. It shows that the analyst, through his or her actions, can deliver powerful procedural interpretations which communicate at the level of a patient’s relational knowledge. The analyst’s behaviour can demonstrate a deep intuitive understanding of the patient, allowing the patient to give more credence to the verbal interpretations. In fact, if the therapist’s act of verbal, symbolic interpreting is to be useful, it needs to exist in the context of healthy procedural relatedness. This case provides an example of how a business transaction initiated by the therapist can result in a significant therapeutic experience. It demonstrates how the delay of a spontaneous impulse in the therapist can allow what would have been thought of as an enactment to be tempered with reflection and clinical acumen.
