ABSTRACT
The scaffold of mental life must be buttressed or the foundation will break under the weight of the emotional demands. The odd productions of psychotic patients could be understood by concentrating on the focal point of emotional theme. As the focal point of emotion moves between patient and doctor, much can be gleaned from its forms and transformations. Notions of the auxiliary ego, the therapist as transitional object, the formation of a therapeutic symbiosis, and the therapist as selfobject speak to the recurrent clinical finding that someone must help the patient bear the untenable. The therapeutic relationship can become both a road map and a source of companionship as the patient heads forward into the future. At the heart of therapeutic approach is unbearable affect. With Andrew Stevens, keeping him alive may become the central long-term goal as unbearable affect is made bearable.
