In her attempt to find the words that touch, the author gives a succession of illuminating examples to indicate what a psychoanalyst and her patient may experience in the transference relationship during the course of an analysis.

Foreword -- The psychoanalyst of the future: wise enough to dare to be mad at times -- Heterogeneous patients: anxiety at heterogeneity -- A language that touches -- A language that addresses the patient’s “mad part” but does not forget the part that is not mad -- Oedipus in search of integration -- The interpretation of projective identification -- Words already touch in the preliminary interviews -- Touching with words and not with actions -- The words don’t matter provided that they touch -- Fragmenting splits, or The Murderer Lives at Number 21 (Steeman, 1939) -- Words that touch bring time to life -- Listening to Freud and speaking to the psychoanalysts of the future -- A vast internal world