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Psychoanalysis has been increasingly used as a research technique in the experimental investigation of the nature of psychosomatic illness. As these experiments become more complex, psychoanalytic procedure is subjected to an increasing variety of external influences. To the extent that deviation from classical technique is pursued, its effect on patient, analyst, and the efficacy of analytic techniques must be considered carefully.
This study is intended (1) to describe the course of a psychosomatic research project where an attempt was made to utilize psychoanalysis as the principal research tool; and (2) to detail the effect on analytic procedures of various parameters and contaminants which were part of the experiment proper.
The research project focused on an investigation of the asthma syndrome. Both physiologic and analytic procedures were carried on concurrently to test the tentative hypothesis that asthma appears as a regressive substitute in anxiety-provoking situations. The hypothesis rested on the reasonable assumption that the transference developed within the analytic procedure would provoke