ABSTRACT
When a colleague correctly apprehended the theme of "narcissism" in a patient and followed that thread, author eventually brought the analysis concerned to a satisfactory end. Some analyses may proceed from the very beginning with characters whom we imagine to be principals and who may subsequently prove to be such; or these characters may simply exit the stage; or else unforeseen and unforeseeable characters may appear. The more response is "dreamt" and mend any deficiency in, the patient's alpha function. The analytic field is in effect the "unsaturated waiting room" that accommodates emotions, proto-emotions, and characters pending their channelling towards their saturated destination in the relationship or construction. Patient and analyst are in effect joined by a number of elastic bands, or possible narrative lines, while more and more "clips" are attached to them, comprising the field's "casting" of what was previously indeterminate.
