In this paper some phenomena of nonverbal communication are studied within the psychoanalytic context of transference-countertransference, under the heading of 'Primary Communication'. These phenomena have traditionally been considered from an extra-analytical viewpoint as belonging to the domain of telepathy.

Two examples belonging to the field of transference-countertransference and a third involving dream thoughts illustrate the mental processes held here as giving rise to Primary Communication. In the case of the patient-transmitter, these are the following: the presence of active psychotic areas of the personality, a tendency towards fusion with the object and the idealization of it, and an overflooding of persecutory anxieties. In the case of the analyst-receiver, or, in the third example, the receiving object, they consist of a readiness to receive and contain the subject, and a relatively regressive disposition.