The Fundamentals of Psychoanalytic Technique by R. Horacio Etchegoyen,  Karnac Books, 1991,  863 pp.

This book is an extremely comprehensive, extraordinarily literate handbook of psychoanalytic theory and technique. Dr. Etchegoyen, a preeminent

Latin American analyst, has synthesized many, if not most, of the important psychoanalytic writings from the German, British, French, and Latin American schools in the construction of this encyclopedic text. The thesis that informs this work is that there is a congruence between psychoanalytic theory and technique. The study of technique inevitably leads to theory, and all technique needs to be understood within the theoretical frame of psychoanalysis. Additionally, there is a reciprocal process of evolution that has naturally taken place. Modifications in psychoanalytic theory have resulted in changes in our technique, which have in turn resulted in theoretical shifts. Thus, this book functions as a history of psychoanalytic thought, a comprehensive overview of psychoanalytic theory, and a primer of technique.

The depth and breadth of issues covered in this book is remarkable. Thus, among the topics Dr. Etchegoyen addresses are transference, countertransference, the working alliance, the stages of treatment, the analytic couple, acting out, and the function of interpretation. Each of these topics is developed from many different points of view. For example, in dealing with the issue of the transference, there are explorations of the dynamics of the transference, transference and repetition, the forms of transference, transference psychosis and perversion, and preoedipal aspects of the transference. Theories that are examined in detail with regard to the transference include those of Lacan and Klein, as well as object relations and self psychology. This is one significant way in which The Fundamentals of Psychoanalytic Technique differs from other classical works on technique, such as Ralph Greenson's The Technique and Practice of Psychoanalysis. These works are informed by one particular theory of analysis (such as Freud's