Searles differentiates two types of pathological therapeutic symbiotic alliance: one in which the patient's fantasy life is unduly repressed and one in which there is insufficient repression. The analyst finds himself doing the fantasizing for both patient and analyst in the first instance and as the only one with a hold on reality in the latter. Searles does not discuss the mechanism for these developments other than to suggest that the origins lie in the early mother-child symbiosis. He states that the analyst must become comfortable with his own fantasies and share them with the patient. Through this process, the patient can learn to fear his own fantasies less and to pursue individuation with greater success.