• Many elements are involved in the process of change and cure in psychoanalysis, some of which are seen as facilitative and others as definitive. I attempted to establish and illustrate the role of the interpersonal interactions between analysand and analyst. As a result of the traditional analytic process, the patient relives at a regressive level some of the unresolved developmental conflicts and crises in the relationship with the analyst. Thus, he has an opportunity to find, through the current experience, a more satisfactory and appropriate developmental resolution of previous psychopathology.