The distinction between psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy is an interesting theoretical and clinical issue. In particular, the conversion from psychotherapy to psychoanalysis with the same analyst poses specific issues in terms of technique.

In the case example presented here, the interpretation of a transference conflict that appeared during psychoanalytic psychotherapy contributed to the analysand's formulation of a wish to undergo psychoanalysis. The change of setting catalyzed new developments in the transference and led to a new transference-countertransference interchange.

The analyst's maintenance of the psychoanalytic stance and the working-through of the transference-countertransference axis permitted the conversion from psychoanalytic psychotherapy to psychoanalysis, revealing the former as a preparatory forerunner of the latter. Within the context of these conditions, the period of psychotherapy did not function as a hindrance, but facilitated the development of the psychoanalytic process.