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Abstract
Collaboration between a physician and a psychoanalyst in an infertility clinic is presented. The usual division between organic and psychogenic sterility is rejected. Emphasis is placed on the latent psychic suffering found in each case. Part 1 of the article describes the joint consultation methodology and its applicability to research. Part 2 presents a synthesis of clinical cases collected over an 18-month period. A latent psychological conflict always underlies complaints of infertility. When a physician and a psychoanalyst work together, the patient can express the preconscious or unconscious fantasies revealing the true significance of his/her symptoms of sterility. These may take the form of a defence against accomplishing an oedipal situation, a fantasy of parthenogenetic reproduction, or the fear of being torn open bodily.
