The candidate and the patient: some transferential and counter-transferential aspects of the reality of apprenticeship.

This paper examines the impact of apprenticeship on the analytic process. It describes how the reality of the apprenticeship appears in or even intrudes into the transference-counter-transference dialogue. The clinical examples illustrate the use of candidate-analyst's reality as a defence. In the authors' opinion, the realistic aspects of the apprenticeship should be analysed as a part of the transference and counter-transference. The candidate is in a narcissistically vulnerable position between the analysand and the institute, and therefore prone to a Talion-like response and to displacement of aggression. An appropriate working through of apprenticeship difficulties should take place in a double dialectical process between candidate and analysand, and between candidate and institute representatives.