As recently qualified analysts, we propose a reflection on the theme of the transmission of psychoanalytic knowledge and the distinctive features that characterise psychoanalytic treatments conducted by candidates, with a particular focus on experiences and fantasies of loss. Drawing on clinical vignettes from supervised cases, we discuss the sudden interruption of an analysis by a “control case” at the culmination point of dynamics of rejection that resonate within the analytic dyad and the institutional field. We further examine the overlap between the patient's fantasies and those of the candidate, within a broader institutional field conceptualized as a phantasmic amplifier. This is illustrated through the tragic case of the death of a supervisor during the treatment of a young patient whose life had already been marked several times by bereavement, including the loss of a previous analyst.

KEY WORDS: Identity, bereavement, loss, training, transformation.