ABSTRACT
The “preliminary interviews” in psychoanalysis are an extremely important stage in the history of the patient’s and the analyst’s joint enterprise. There are various possibilities: to embark on a psychoanalysis; to undertake a psychotherapy; to have some discrete interviews; to consult someone else; or to stop then and there because a few interviews were all that was necessary. The analyst must already be listening out for the process during the preliminary interviews, so that he can help the patient towards the realization that the relationship forming between the two has a resonance that recalls the patient’s past. In other words, the patient must sense what “transference” means and become conscious of his internal world. Some senior psychoanalysts have on occasion discouraged analysts-to-be by implying that analysis is suitable only for neurotic, relatively mature analysands with a capacity for symbolization. The analyst must accept a period of uncertainty, as the representation of the patient’s fantasy world does not emerge immediately.
