ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author illustrates psychoanalytic work with her patient Greta, a woman born with a rare congenital medical condition of unknown cause that affects the development of blood vessels, soft tissues, and bones, leading to abnormal growth in one or more of these areas. Greta decided to attend an annual meeting of an organization representing those who suffered with similar congenital conditions. Greta's body was shaped from the very beginning of her life by a con genital medical condition and consequent deformity. The author focuses on Alessandra A. Lemma's ideas about the "somatic countertransference" as it manifests in work with a patient whose body is the principal vehicle of unconscious communication. In Lemma elucidation of the settings, J. Bleger refers to the idea of a symbiotic transference, a "primitive and undifferentiated organization" where "what is always there is never noticed unless it is missing".
