This paper describes and examines further Klein's (1952) view that it is essential to recognize that total situations are transferred from the past into the present and need to be considered alongside emotions, defences and object relations in unravelling and understanding the nature of the unfolding transference. Two clinical vignettes, taken from work with children, highlight specific difficulties in dealing with intensely uncomfortable and quite complex countertransference experiences which were eventually understood only when the total situation of the patient's internal experience of his infancy and early childhood and the projection of defences, affects and object relations could be linked.