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Introduction – Concerned with the application of psycho-pathological theories in the consulting room. One very important part is incidental to main theme of paper.
The common everyday locution, ‘How like so and so’ or ‘Churchillian’ – meaning a function of the personality. Various factors combined to produce the characteristic.
From this I propose to abstract ‘Functions’ and ‘Factors’. As an example of a function I propose to take the relationship the patient established with the analyst. This I shall abstract by using the term ‘Link’ as a name for it. I shall consider that three links only exist: Love, Hate and Knowing – meaning by the last term something akin to ‘getting to know’. These terms I shall at once replace by further abstractions: L, H, and K.
When it comes to use of abstraction, models, etc. … in the session itself, I must point out that students think they know too little. Though this is true, it obscures far more important points, namely:
That the student's analysis is not primarily to give information but to remove obstacles to his capacity for observation.
That he knows far too many psychoanalytic theories to be good for him.
That he should pick out the smallest possible number of fundamental theories which together will enable him to construct the maximum number of models, and from them the maximum number of interpretations. This is the fundamental importance of learning to make model-flexibility.