[Dynamic investigation and the question of early transference in a case of cancer patient]

Dynamic psychiatrists value the analysis of the physician-patient relationship as a crucial component of the diagnostic assessment of all cancer patients with a comorbid psychiatric disorder. Transference is a repetition. The feelings associated with figures from the past are being repeated with the psychiatrist. This premise implies that this repetition reveals a good deal about the patient's current difficulties, as an echo of past ones. This article explores the early interaction between a patient with a brain tumor and his psychiatrist, Analysis of the relationship allows to refine the diagnosis and to develop an etiological psychodynamic hypothesis. The treatment, then, aims to resolution of current symptoms but also promotes improvement of the patient's actual functioning, and avoidance of endless pathological repetitions.