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Francesca, whose parents immediately give the impression of being “fragile”, is a ten-year-old girl with a strange symptom, which has been diagnosed on many occasions, without anyone ever being able to account for it satisfactorily. She howls desperately for several hours a day without let-up; this only happens when she is at home, while her behaviour is suitably “normal” in other circumstances. Neither she nor her parents can find any explanation for this phenomenon. During her first meeting with her analyst, Francesca draws a picture (Fig. 1).
Francesca calls this the wood where there are no people — there are only trees, foxes, adders, fish, etc. The analyst is uncertain about the various meanings this drawing might have. He thinks of possible interpretations, but then he wonders of what use they might be to Francesca, and none of them seems satisfactory. Meanwhile he begins to feel increasingly ill-at-ease because he cannot find the right words to say what he wants, so he feels an impulse to get out of this impasse by saying something, just anything at all.