Tolerating the countertransference: a mutative process

The paper examines the technical problem of how to deal with the patient who evokes powerful feelings in the analyst. It describes how 'tolerating' such countertransference can, by itself, produce psychic change in the patient. This occurs through inevitable partial acting out by the analyst, and the patient's observation of this. Implications of this interaction in the understanding of the mother-baby relationship are discussed.