READING DR. WACHTEL'S PAPER, I had certain déjà-vu experiences when I encountered a number of ideas, formulations and tenets that have appeared in my own writings over a period of many years, albeit leading to different therapeutic considerations. I will document some of our parallel thought processes before offering a discussion of the essay.

The particular areas of commonality between Dr. Wachtel and me center around emphasis on processes rather than on entities. This means that the primary therapeutic focus rests on the relational patterns between people instead of their inherent, static properties. In my view, individual neuroses, psychoses and psychopathology result from the warpings of self-appraisal which lead to faulty communication, potential mis-perceptions and particular malintegrations