The author focuses on the associativity in the first session of the psychotherapeutic treatment of a female patient, Églantine, who had suffered a traumatic assault. Excitation and the risk of invasion of the ego are prominent. The patient, at grips with a terrifying imago, has recourse to acting through speech and behaviour. The analyst’s work in the countertransference made it possible for a shared associativity to unfold during the session, allowing the patient to create a space for herself in the present and to rediscover the psychic scene.