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Current German psychoanalysis has to a remarkable extent dedicated itself to systematic empirical research in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, orienting itself strongly toward the methodology of the natural sciences and using experimental techniques. Representatives of this trend see themselves in more or less sharp contrast to what in traditional classical psychoanalysis has been considered “research”: the careful study of individual cases, in reports that at times read like novels, as Freud put it, a method that seeks its justification in what Freud regarded as the natural, almost obligatory conjunction of treatment and research. These two research traditions are contrasted in this book with a third approach. Anna Ursula Dreher, a Frankfurt psychoanalyst who worked closely with the late Joseph Sandler and others at the Hampstead Clinic, proposes a program of psychoanalytic research into concepts, a systematic clarification of psychoanalytic concepts and their various uses. This, she assures us, can be conducted on an empirical basis, the Greek word empeiría meaning experience. In her view, such an exploration should not restrict itself to careful scrutiny of the literature, as important as this is. Rather, she has envisioned a broadening of the observational field to include the de facto use of concepts. In a systematic study, experienced practitioners are interviewed individually. This is followed by transcribed discussions of these interviews by selected groups of participants, including experts. A major aim of such