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This paper is concerned with psychic processes within the mind of the analyst; its thesis is that the analyst's internal picture of what his troubled patient can become, or what he will be like when he is well, will affect what the analyst does with the patient and thus the outcome of the treatment. The patient also fantasizes a treatment outcome. The interplay of these conscious or unconscious fantasies and expectations, which may or may not be spoken aloud, will have an important effect on the course of the analysis.
Ornstein and Ornstein (1977) discussed the concept of a “curative fantasy” held by the patient, which is that his infantile expectations will be met by someone in an intimate relationship with him, especially by the analyst. They see this curative fantasy not only as a repetition of the past, but also as an expression of a hope for a new and different future. They see a central therapeutic aim as aiding the unfolding, and then the transformation and the maturation of the curative fantasy. They do not discuss a curative fantasy on the part of the analyst, however.
Beres and Arlow (1974) described how certain unconscious fantasies may be shared between analyst and patient. Andre Green (1975), among others, has referred to an analyst's constructing in his mind a picture of the patient's mental functioning, “a figure homologous to