Even if it were true that before around fourteen months infants are incapable of coding experience in ways that are recoverable in analysis, nonverbal communicative processes of emotional induction or projective identification may play an important role in our work with certain, perhaps even all, of our patients. But it may be an error to assume that such nonverbal processes equate to or derive from primitive preverbal processes and experiences. They may involve subtle and intelligent non-discursive symbolic forms. As analysts working in depth with the unconscious in the here-and-now of the analytic relationship, we recognize our speculations about the past as merely that, and leave the issue of their validity to those who are interested in and capable of conducting scientific research in this field.