ABSTRACT
A General Medical Practitioner (GP) refers a man suffering from depression for psychotherapy. The first three months of therapy prior to diagnosis are traced. In this period the main themes that were to characterise this analysis are introduced. The history of repeated broken relationships and the immediate dependent transference are discussed. Boarding school emerges as a significant trauma; it is a form of abandonment and bereavement suffered by this man, when he was an eight-year-old child. In one day, he went from being a special child in a family to being one of many children in an institution where his emotional life was not valued. The loss of his mother at this early age affected his relationships in his later life and he was rarely able to stay with one woman but was constantly moving on. Unconsciously he always feared being abandoned. The intimacy of the transference, which quickly formed, is symbolised by the image of the cold snow outside and the warm heater in the consulting room. The significance of the house as a metaphor for the psyche is introduced. The analyst is deeply touched by the openness of this patient.
