This paper is the result of a post-doctoral research. It debates the notion of psychic crisis according to Pierre Fédida. The authors discuss the case of a hospitalized HIV/AIDS patient, in which the countertransference effects of psychotherapy suggest the critical processes of the psychic crisis situation and the desire to “know about oneself”. The analytical process enabled the patient to do so. The paper considers that the notion of psychic crisis contributes to research concerning psychoanalytic psychotherapy in the hospital.
Psychic crisis; countertransference; desire to know; psychoanalytic psycho-therapy in the hospital