ABSTRACT
Mara was the first person with whom psychiatrist embarked on a course of psychotherapy after finishing his training. The thing is that she is always quarrelling with her (women) friends and ultimately feels unable to establish any lasting relationships. She has been for therapy before but her therapist fell ill and had to break up therapy. As a small child, the impression she had of her mother was of someone unapproachable and constantly overtaxed. For all her sophistication and apparent self-possession, the first sessions reveal major insecurity and diffuse anxiety behind the laid-back facade. In the first weeks of treatment, she repeatedly dwells on the idea that she might fall seriously ill or even die. The course of treatment lasted almost three years. Mara terminated her therapy when she met and fell in love with a man and moved away to a distant city with him.
