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Clinical phenomena may be defined as "phenomena that go on between the observer and the observed in the situation created by the observer participating with the observed …" (Sullivan, 1940, p. 12). In particular, such phenomena include the patient's "verbal report of subjective appearances" (Sullivan, 1938, p. 34).
SINCE ITS INCEPTION MORE THAN A CENTURY ago, psychoanalysis has spawned diverse theoretical models and methods. Nevertheless, two aspects of this treatment remain universal—the use of the patient's narrative to communicate material to the analyst and the resurrection of memories from the patient's early life experience.
Spence (1989) has described the compelling nature of the patient's narrative by commenting that "part of our sense of self depends on our being able to go backwards and forwards in time and to weave a story about who we are, how we got that way, and where we are going: a story that is continuously nourishing and self-satisfying" (pp. 521–522). Most patients attribute great significance to their narrative disclosures, casting themselves as omniscient story-tellers in the portrayal of their past experiences and future aspirations.
In addition to this story-telling quality, psychoanalysis has also emphasized the value of retrospective information, the ability "to go backwards … in time and to weave a story about who we are and how we got that way." Indeed, in explaining the transforming effect of psychoanalysis, Freud emphasized that the patient would need to resurrect the past in order to confront and resolve long suppressed infantile desires (Freud, 1900), (1937a). Despite some revisions, the underlying premise of this form of treatment has remained steadfast: psychoanalysis involves the narration of a retrospective