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THE FIRST POINT TO BE ADDRESSED is the title of this paper, or more precisely, the quotation marks around the word "technique". Fromm objected to the application of this term to psychoanalysis. In some unpublished notes entitled "Psychoanalytic 'technique'—or the art of listening", Fromm states that the word "technical" refers "to the mechanical, to that which is not alive, while the proper word for dealing with that which is alive is 'art'."
The second point is the fact that Fromm's writings on this subject are too few. He meant to remedy this omission towards the end of his life by publishing his views on psychoanalytic theory and technique, but only succeeded in completing the first part of this project, the result of which was his last book, Greatness and Limitations of Freud's Thought (1979a; GA VIII).
Lacking a systematic work by Fromm himself, the available sources for reconstructing his ideas about technique can be grouped into four categories:
1Fromm's published works on technique. These include a prewar paper (1935a; GA I), the four chapters on dreams in The Forgotten Language (1951a; GA IX), a short paper on free association (1955d), and the Evans interview of December 1963, which appeared as a film and later in book form (which was never approved by Fromm).