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The significance of learning in the psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic process has been, until recently, a relatively neglected aspect of its practice. Dr. Greenbaum has called attention to its importance and described the role of learning as a biological process active in all organisms and in human development. I would agree with his conceptualizations in these areas, with some minor reservations. I shall limit my discussion, however, to the role of learning in the psychotherapeutic process; I shall not draw a distinction between individual and group therapy, because I believe that the learning process is qualitatively similar in both, allowing for the effects of the several individuals in a group. These would include the multiple transferences, the varying interpersonal interactions, the possibilities for socialization and better reality-testing. In short, there is the greater possibility of learning from a larger number of available sources.
Dr. Greenbaum cites Hilgard's definition of learning as “the process by which an activity originates or is changed through reacting to an encountered situation, provided that the characteristics of the change cannot be explained on the basis of native response tendencies, maturation, or temporary artificial states,”1 such as drugs, fatigue, and hypnosis. He then refines this concept by postulating the required presence of four factors: drive or motivation, cue or stimulus, response, reward or punishment.
Although this notion is certainly valid, when it is applied to analytic psychotherapy, it must be broadly expanded and qualified. I would propose that learning is the acquisition of any new material—cognitive, emotional, or behavioral—from within or without, which is incorporated into newer patterns of functioning. Certainly the patient learns by picking up subtle cues and making responses, but other forms of learning are operative as well.
The cognitive process is even more important than the simple conditioning