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As the title indicates, Paul Gray places himself squarely in the tradition of Anna Freud and the Ego Psychologists. Since the book has had such an impact, and is at the time of this writing the centerpiece of internet discussions, it seems useful to comment on its influence and to place it in context.
Gray has influenced analytic technique by calling attention to following closely the analytic material with an eye and ear toward strengthening the patient's self-observation. Positing this as a primary goal of psychoanalysis allows Gray then to demonstrate how he works, and defines his successes in pursuing his object, which, broadly speaking, can be characterized as defense analysis. The clarity thereby achieved is clearly useful, and has exerted a mighty influence over analytic technique.
Gray advocates paying close attention to process, following Freud's injunction. In “On beginning the treatment” , Freud writes: one “must be careful not to give a patient the solution of a symptom or the translation of a wish until he is already so close to it that he has only one short step more to make in order to get hold of the explanation for himself” (140-141). This statement of Freud's Gray takes as his touchstone. But, unlike Freud, Gray seems to have little difficulty sorting out what is near the surface and what is deeper. He describes himself as one who works at the point of contact between drive derivatives and consciousness, enabling his patients to think and inquire with increasingly greater freedom.
Gray's clarity is seductive; he gives unambiguous accounts of the aims of analysis. To one patient, he explains that “the aim is to understand the ways you have been able to keep these parts of yourself out of awareness, and why that has been necessary. As a result, you'll come to have better access to them and, if you wish, may choose some different solutions than the involuntary ones that trouble you now” (p. 189). He urges another to “to study these involuntary inhibiting