ABSTRACT
The primary task of psychoanalytic clinicians is to listen to and observe everything that is going on in the consulting-room: in the patient, in the therapist, and in the relationship between the two. This clinical stance has long informed clinical practice. Freud recommended that we listen to our patients with free-floating attention; Sandler advocates free-floating responsiveness; Bion tells us to listen with negative capability, with no memory or desire. Psychoanalysis has developed as a result of the constant interplay between clinical practice and theoretical understanding, because we all need to have some sort of theoretical construct in our minds, which meets with what we hear and observe and helps us to organize our experience. This chapter provides a case study about a adult patient named as Mrs F, who is American-born but has lived in this country for most of her adult years. She is in her late forties and is employed as a personnel manager.
