The first consultation with the psychoanalyst is described as a psychoanalytic encounter if the analyst conducts it from beginning to end in a psychoanalytic posture in which the work of interpretation is based on the unconscious scene of the transference-countertransference relationship. It then offers patient and analyst alike sufficient anticipatory experience to predict within limits what might be expected for both parties in a possible ensuing psychoanalysis. This conception of the psychoanalytic consultation is illustrated by a detailed case history.