Published clinical examples are used to show how both contemporary ego psychological approaches and the relational approach are pre-structura l, in the sense that they implicitly appeal to Freud's earlier, layering model. In this framework, defense and defended-against are seen as categorically different, with the consequence that both interpretation and the goals of analysis are necessarily normative. Viewed in this perspective, interpretive neutrality represents an unrealistic absence of influence. This perspective can also account for the widespread pessimism regarding exclusive reliance on interpretation and the consequent belief in the need to rely on the impact of the analytic relationship.