ABSTRACT
A language touches when, in the course of conveying thoughts, it reaches the feelings, as well as the accompanying sensations and bodily manifestations. During analysis, a patient may come to experience the reality of his psychic world. The analyst points the way for him by showing himself to be convinced that this world is indeed a reality. In this chapter, the author shows one of the first manifestations of the conviction is the belief that words can touch—that is, that they can enable us to feel the presence of a fantasy world extending beyond the boundaries of concrete reality. For the analyst, the route towards greater tolerance often involves improving the capacity to symbolize and to transfer to the psychic level what had previously been present only in concrete terms. More than ever, the patients who come to a psychoanalyst for help have great difficulty in tolerating the heterogeneity of their wishes and feelings.
