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At the Midwinter Meetings in December, 1950, which were held at the Waldorf-Astoria, the papers presented and the panels held were exceedingly interesting. We have already published summaries of the papers presented and in this issue we are reproducing the panel discussions in detail as they were submitted to us by the reporters of the panels.
CHAIRMAN: Robert Fliess, M.D. (New York)
REPORTER: Norvelle C. LaMar, M.D. (New York)
In opening the panel, Dr. Fliess stated that holding a session for which there was to be no formal preparation was something of an experiment. He hoped that the discussion might lead to an informal exchange of information, of opinion, to speaking back and forth, asking questions, attempting to give answers, talking off the cuff; in other words, to talking shop in public rather than engaging in any formal presentation of papers. He noted, too, that the session on current problems of technique was a natural outgrowth of a panel discussion on character analysis last year. Analysts do not do research in the ordinary way. Because, he stated, psychoanalysis is still a young science, the analyst is obliged to be scientist, technician and therapist at one and the same time. He is a man who does research in a laboratory and a library and his job is a solitary one. Technique is a subject not much discussed. Forty years ago, Freud announced he would outline a general method of psychoanalytic technique. He never wrote it. Instead, he wrote anywhere from fifteen to twenty articles on technique throughout his life time, always treating specific points and saying that that was all he had to give. Dr. Fliess believes we are still at that stage.
At the outset, your reporter finds his task rather exhausting. In trying to report the panel in a meaningful way, while keeping within the publication requirements of The Bulletin,