This paper is an attempt to think about a process and experience which is essentially before thinking in its origins; that is to say, the maternal experience of holding the baby in mind and the baby's experience of being held. I have looked at the issue subjectively and anecdotally, for which in the end I make no apology as I can see no other way to proceed, at least in the first instance; and I want to think about how this thinking applies to the practice of psychoanalytic psychotherapy.