You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
In his opening remarks, George Pollock expressed the hope for interdisciplinary integration of learning theories and psychoanalytic theories. He pointed out that because of time limitations and the present state of the art, a full discussion of the interrelationships of these theories would not be possible at this time and suggested a workshop in the future.
Pollock referred to his role as Chairman as a replacement for Gerhart Piers who had been ill. He summarized a contribution by Gerhart and Maria Piers1 on Modes of Learning and the Analytic Process, and he reviewed the three basic modes of learning in the analytic process: conditioning, insight learning, and learning through identification. Quoting the Piers' paper, Pollock spoke of conditioning as characterized by repetition, automatization, and a degree of dysphoria; insight learning by sudden closure and ego gratification; and identification, as distinguished from imitation, playing its part as a legitimate aspect of therapeutic analysis. The three modes of learning were viewed as possessing affinity to different ego structures and characterized by developmental phase specificity.
Further comment by Pollock, in step with the Piers' contribution, centered on three aspects of insight: insight connects motivation and behavior, diminishes the isolation between emotion and cognition, and loosens the repression barrier between past and present. These facets of insight are facilitated, or produced, by transference interpretation, confrontation, and genetic interpretations.