ABSTRACT
It is important to recognise that the analyst himself is much more at ease with discovering and apprehending the various forms of his fantasy life than with understanding his mental functioning and its diverse modalities while he is listening to his patient. The analyst listens to his patient by means of a sort of apparatus that he sets up within himself, combining several elements, which, as a whole, all contribute to a single aim, that of understanding. Listening is thus mediated, the analysand's discourse distorted, transformed, and reconstructed, with the aim of identifying a certain truth that can be communicated to the patient, thereby contributing to and furthering the analytic process. The patient's instinctual tendencies change into narcissistic tendencies in the analyst. By withdrawing the most individual aspects of his/her own personality, the analyst allows his/her analysand to invade him/her.
