ABSTRACT
This chapter presents and discusses clinical facts that manifest themselves as strange “accidents” in the analytic field. Suddenly, the analyst is startled by the abrupt emergence of discharges, acts, symptoms, images and situations that make them feel perplexed and frightened. These “accidents” lead the analyst to feel strange. Their impression is that they are participating in situations named uncanny by Freud. Through clinical material the author proposes that these accidents indicate the substitution of the known, the familiar, for the unfamiliar. But the unfamiliar is not entirely unknown, because it refers to primitive experiences that have not been sufficiently symbolized. This ambiguity manifests itself in the disorientation of the analyst, who does not know whether their analytic function is intact or disturbed. It is demonstrated that both of these situations are in fact present. Theoretical aspects are discussed in the sequence.
