Abstract: I discuss Dr. Robert Grossmark's Case of Peter from a self-psychological/relational perspective. Peter's is a story of a man with remarkable determination and resilience and of a highly facilitative analytic dyad. Having come from a family experience of extreme parental abuse, Peter was able to self-regulate, generating fantasy selfobects to survive on his own. At a time of crisis he approached psychoanalytic treatment with expectancies of distrust. A good match in intelligence, intellectual values, and humor, Dr. Grossmark highlighted the repetitive self and relational themes and picked up the “leadingedge” (what the patient is striving for) of the material. Through his explicit-declarative focus (analytic inquiry) Robert interacted with Peter in a reflective, noncontrolling manner that, in turn, Peter experienced as respectful and promoting, cocreating new implicit relational learning.