At the time I wrote this essay, twelve years ago, this analysis had just come to an end. It had lasted close to eleven years.

I am grateful to my patient, Miss A, whose courage, intelligence, and persistence permitted the evolution of this difficult process, thus allowing both of us to undergo change and maturation.

Looking over my position and interventions 23 years after my first encounter with Miss A, I could perceive marked differences with the analyst I am today. Yet the account of the analysis itself and Miss A's letter to me sent shortly after the termination might provide others with insights into this work and their own. In this way patient and analyst could offer this intense experience as a building block toward reflecting upon transference in the psychoanalytic process.

The patient was a 23-year-old psychology student who had been in psychotherapy for three years when she applied to the treatment