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This supplementary issue of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association has been prepared as a contribution to the 31st Congress of the International Psycho-Analytic Association, the first held in the United States. Consistent with the theme of the Congress — Clinical Issues in Psycho-aalysis — we have chosen the theme The Theory of Therapy and Psychoanalytic Technique. In this way, the Journal hopes to encourage an exchange of ideas in the area of clinical theory.
Essential for developing and validating our theory and for refining the psychoanalytic process is the correlation of clinical data and theoretical inferences. The psychoanalytic process itself derives from the clinical application of psychoanalytic principles; psychoanalytic technique in turn rests upon and is inseparable from the theory of technique.
As an applied scientific methodology, clinical psychoanalysis is not a rigid, invariant, or absolutely precise procedure. It is an applied science — not without its artistic qualities — and a mode of psychological investigation. The psychoanalytic process allows for flexibility and innovation in, for example, the timing and type of interpretation, the focus on past and present. It is not, however, either eclectic or pragmatic, nor is it a psychotherapy constructed and altered to fit a particular syndrome or treatment situation. Whereas clinical psychoanalysis is a specific, well-defined process, it is continually being refined. As the contents of this issue demonstrate, certain areas still remain ambiguous, are subject to controversy, and require further investigation.