Pam's paper explored the experience of a young child in psychoanalysis who was unable to tolerate the impact of the absent object. It prematurely shattered the illusion that the baby and breast are one. To cope with this rupture she substituted the lack of a containing function with omnipotent defenses to help her survive.
The paper described how the psychoanalytical setting provided an experience of containment to enable the necessary psychic changes to occur and how the transference was an essential part of the process of getting to know this little girl’s inner life and to help her become known to herself.
