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The chairman opened the meeting with the announcement that discussion from the floor was invited in order to have an open conference rather than a limited symposium. This resulted in twenty-one lively discussions of the five principal papers. The extensive material does not permit an easy summary of even the major presentations, much less of the subsidiary topics. It is regretable that all the topics offered cannot be included, but it is nonetheless hoped that the truncation necessary for a brief report will not result in gross distortion.
In an introduction which served as a keynote paper for many of the important issues under discussion, Roy R. Grinker described the work of a psychoanalyst as a participation in a complex two-way process in which there are direct and indirect influences, even though the analyst attempts to remain a neutral observer, detached in space behind a screen. In this highly active process, the first-hand observations about motivations, needs, and satisfactions cannot be separated from conceptual models. He cited an example from the recent literature in which ideas inherent in the theories of libido and infantile sexuality were closely associated with the language of clinical data, clinical associations and hypotheses, all in one paragraph. There is the further difficulty of separating the metapsychological problems (theories about theories) from the simpler theories which are more directly bound to observations.
The fact that the analyst is usually a physician with therapeutic responsibilities and ambitions as well as a person with research goals adds further complications. Grinker mentioned the trials experienced by his group in setting up an experiment to study the nature of aggression.