What is it All About?

Thoughts on technique must by necessity be linked to the set of ideas analysts embrace concerning the structure of the human mind; what makes the mind develop and what makes the mind go wrong. That is, as analysts we have ideas about psychopathology. Psychopathology can be thought of as well delineated clinical categories, but to my mind this view is too static. I prefer to think about psychopathology as constantly fluctuating dynamic states of the mind. These shifting states of mind are expressions of unconscious phantasy. Unconscious phantasy is by definition expression of infantile states of mind. The poet Wordsworth claimed that the child is the father of the man. I tend to agree with the view that our adulthood is built upon and derives from infantile structures of the mind. The infantile structures of the mind can either strengthen adulthood or undermine it. Psychoanalysis can help in identifying these structures and turn them into an asset and source of inspiration in a personality that, before analysis, is helpless and a prisoner of these infantile structures. I further think that the psychoanalytical method is the only one capable of following in detail the evolving transformations of this inner world. This expression of the internal world goes on throughout every psychoanalytic session. I know of no other method so interested in the minute details of the interaction between two persons. This point of view affects my technique. First of all it places the analysis of the transference-countertransference in the centre of my technique. Why? Because the presence of me (or my absence during weekend breaks and holidays) evokes in the patient unconscious phantasies expressing the structure of the infantile aspects of the internal world. As an analyst I am pulled into an unconscious world of object relations and strong affects develop. If not addressed the patient will unconsciously feel deserted.

The development of clinical theor