In this paper three 'Kleinian' analysts describe the reactions of three patients observed when the British Psychoanalytic Institute moved to its new building. A

man of thirty, in his sixteenth month of analysis, suffered an intense oral conflict, wondering whether the new Institute would be good, and if so whether it would keep him well. His depressive anxieties were primarily related to a 'cold, frigid, sterile mother'. A twenty-six-year-old woman, in analysis for twelve months, was stimulated by the change to re-experience conflicts related to the primal scene. Her anxiety over these conflicts made her unable to assimilate any 'new knowledge'. She suffered from intellectual inhibition, frigidity, nausea, and anorexia. To a seventeen-year-old boy in his seventh month of analysis, the change meant 'imminent death'. Any 'movement' was understood by the patient as a magical defense against the 'dread of death' and of total annihilation.