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This paper describes work with two patients who experienced an early undercathexis of the body-self. It explores the relationship between this type of deficit and the use made by the patient of the analyst’s body and by extension of the body of the analytic room. I propose that in work with patients who have experienced an early undercathexis of the body-self, it is vital to identify those instances when the patient tries to make an “aesthetic link” with the analyst. This refers to how the patient may apprehend by the senses (aesthetic) a feature of the analyst’s physicality, or of the physical space of the consulting room, and uses it to make a connection (link) with an as yet unrealized and wished-for embodied self that for some time can only be experienced through an identification with aspects of the analyst’s body/room. This has technical implications; I suggest that interpretation of what can appear to be an idealized and/or erotic transference, but is in fact the patient’s attempt to establish an aesthetic link, can be experienced as disorganizing and as undermining of a developmental thrust.