In agreement with M. Bouvet, the author believes that the main problem in the psychoanalytic treatment of obsessive-compulsive neurotics is their compulsive guarding of distance to the object in reaction to any intensification of social contact. These patients' enormous need for distance largely precludes direct interpretations in the first stage of treatment. At this time, the therapist can merely respect the patient's qualities, demonstrate freer modes of behavior, and reflect the patient's projective defense. After the reduction of the defense symptomatology there follows a usually brief phase of transference neurosis.