This report raises two interconnected questions. The first concerns the manner in which each psychoanalyst constructs his or her own body of theory. It is suggested that this construction is based on three elements: the received theoretical heritage; one's own personality and history, both personal and psychoanalytic; the socio-cultural zeitgeist, i. e. the fabric of sensitivities, beliefs, aspirations and concerns specific to the place and time in question. The result is a highly personal, often heterogeneous theoretical edifice, largely unconscious and imbued with affects. The second question is: what happens when analysts from different theoretical backgrounds meet? A detailed clinical case will illustrate the tension between the analyst's official and private theories, and the irremediable intervention of a degree of non-communication as an anthropological invariant.