In this paper the author argues that psychoanalytic education is enhanced when (a) it attends seriously to the affective, relational and social processes that frame the experience of teaching and of learning, fostering a critical engagement with both, and (b) it engages candidates in exploring what they do (technique) in the context of the articulation of their model of working (theory). The features of the ‘teaching attitude’ that are relevant to psychoanalytic education are illustrated though a ‘teaching case study’ detailing the rationale, process and content for a curriculum on the concept of transference.