ABSTRACT
The clinical material proposed in this chapter present a patient who developed a melancholic state from an early age, linked to severe psychological traumas hindering the constitution of the ego (violence and deficiencies in the family, then in the household in which he grew up). The presence of God, through the attendance of a Christian movement and regular contact with a benevolent pastor, contributed to give him the minimum of confidence necessary for an effective, but sad, adaptation to the reality of the adult world. The account of the psychotherapeutic work, still in progress, will show the importance of the construction of a secure relationship before being able to approach the reliving of the patient’s traumatic experience and to work on its unconscious repercussions in the approach to relationships, in particular through an actualization of this experience in the transference. Moreover, an active interest by the therapist in what may have made the patient curious in his youth allowed the re-animation of a buried epistemophilic drive, with the objective of diminishing the presence of a too mortifying masochism. In this situation, the desire to gain knowledge and freedom manifested itself around the presence of God, the nature of which can be followed as the patient’s ego is strengthened.
