This seminar is predicated on the assumption that there are crucial differences between the discourse of psychoanalytic processes and those of psychotherapeutic procedures. Arguably the major challenge for the psychoanalyst is the initial phase of the treatment, in which the patient has to be helped ― psychotherapeutically ― to move into the process of psychoanalysis. This is the threefold challenge of: (i) appreciating the patient’s readiness to begin a treatment that will, in the course of its first-year move from a psychotherapeutic modality to a psychoanalytic one (this is often misleadingly labeled the assessment phase); (ii) beginning the clinical relationship in a manner that will help the patient to resist the treatment in ways that are productive; (iii) facilitating the patient’s move from psychotherapeutic to psychoanalytic ways of working (a move that almost invariably takes at least a year). This seminar will discuss ways of thinking about these three aspects of routine psychoanalytic treatments.