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Fine and Fine (1990) concluded their study of four psychoanalytic perspectives with a reconfirmation of the differences among ego-psychological (what they called “classical”), Kohutian, Kleinian, and my approaches, and the following question: “What differences do these differences make? That is a question for future researchers to answer.”
I intend here to explore the gradual development of a new psychoanalytic mainstream through the convergence of the technical approaches of ego psychology, the British schools, and my own work, and a parallel evolving convergence of Kohutian and interpersonal analytic approaches toward an overall intersubjectivist-object-relational approach. In what follows, I shall compare these two overall directions of contemporary psychoanalysis and spell out my own position regarding the effects of these contrasting approaches to interpretation.
Until 10 years ago, listening to presentations at the British Psychoanalytic Society, it was quite easy to differentiate the viewpoints of the contemporary Freudian, the Kleinian, and Independent groups. Nowadays, this is becoming increasingly difficult. As rapprochement among the ego-psychological, Independent, and Kleinian traditions has developed, changes in the mainstream of psychoanalytic technique have evolved in the following areas Kernberg, (1993a):
1) There is a definite tendency for earlier and more systematic interpretation of the transference within the contemporary Freudian or ego-psychological approach, moving, in this regard, in the direction of Kleinian technique. 2) There is an increasing emphasis on countertransference analysis as part of the material to be