A case is described in which the first dream reported in analysis contained an undisguised representation of the analyst. Subsequent modifications of this dream, with associated transference vicissitudes and other analytic data, contributed to the elucidation of the first dream. The undisguised representation of the analyst was an attempt to treat him as a 'real' person and thus avoid investing him with symbolic importance; in effect, a resistance to transference formation. A primary defense in the patient's dreams, on the couch, and in her life was a flight into reality. Later, as evidence appeared that the analyst had become a true transference object, he disappeared from dreams and was replaced by disguised symbolic figures. The flight into reality was traced to denial of the reality of her father's penis. This was associated with a fetishistic displacement to concern with the 'externals' of life, the analyst's office, and his actual social

identity. Concern with present-day realities served to screen childhood events involving her father's exhibitionism.