ABSTRACT
The house is evoked as a symbolic image representing a psychological state of at homeness. Boarding school is a form of exile and remains as a psychological state of exile throughout life. Inhabiting is a metaphor for places we have lived and states of emotional life. The patient’s history of having lived in different houses is introduced and the emotional parallel is drawn. The story of the Count of Monte Cristo is linked to a sense of vengeance for the betrayal by the parents who sent him away to boarding school at the age of 8. The initial transference is discussed in terms of the yearning for a psychological sense of at-homeness. The depth of emotional engagement evokes intimacy and the transference as an imaginal enterprise. The ousted unconscious seeks a home in the analytic space: this is considered with reference to Gaston Bachelard.
