ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the development of the therapeutic relationship with Jane as it unfolded over the first three years. It explains how the tenor and dynamics of the relationship helped to understand her early mothering experience and informed the therapy. Jane suffered from early failures of containment in the maternal dyad, and had no positive male figure available to help negotiate these early developmental stages. The chapter shows that the repercussions of this have coloured her internal world, have affected her perceptions of her external world, and how she is now able to relate to it and myself as a result of intensive analytical psychotherapy. As she explored the murderous emotions in the safety of the therapeutic frame, they became less toxic and more humanized, and her defences of splitting and projection lessened. The beginnings of a sense of herself, emerged and there was some strengthening of her ego's capacity to deal with conflicting emotions.
