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I am grateful to Vera von der Heydt and Eberhard Jung for giving me the opportunity to comment further on the patient's attempted suicide. As everyone knows, it is impossible to unfold the whole background of a suicidal attempt without writing a book, as Hillman (1964) did in his Suicide and the soul. I am in complete agreement with both commentators that I should have mentioned the destructive aspect of this problem and of the sexual transference fantasies contained in the symbolism of the tiger as well as the aggressive problems. If I question myself in all honesty I must admit that there may well have been a defence mechanism within the countertransference and also in my wishing to see the problem as being prospective rather than destructive. But then who could react to a suicidal attempt without the arousal of defence mechanisms?

During the phase when the patient was modelling the tiger she also brought a lot of sado-masochistic fantasies which she had kept strictly secret up to that time. As is the case with all material, some of her aggressive sexual fantasies were transferred on to the analyst. On the one hand, during the long phase preceding her suicidal attempt incestuous desires were activated in the unconscious together with a great deal of disappointment that these could not be realized. On the other, her guilt feelings must also have been stirred up. In this situation she discovered that the analyst was unable to protect her from herself.

Having said this, I want to restate that there were also reasons for seeing the matter from a prospective point of view. The patient had made a number of very serious suicidal attempts before treatment began. Most patients who have made several suicidal attempts prior to analysis will have to make at least one during the treatment. The reason for this is that they have to bring this symptom, which is also symbolic, into the transference. My patient's suicidal attempt was not as carefully planned and carried out as the pr