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This article is a discussion of H. Kaiser's paper, 'Probleme der Technik' (Inter. Zeitschrift f. Psychoanalyse, XX, 1934). Fenichel begins by speaking of W. Reich's work holds good for many of Kaiser's theories too. Fenichel thinks that Reich's great service to the problems of technique is his warning against a technique based on intuition only; his other service is his insistence on the importance of the economic and dynamic aspects of the psychic life. Fenichel gives a short sketch of Reich's ideas on characteristic behaviour ('Das charakterliche Verhalten') as resistance, and of the affects which are 'frozen' into the individual's way of holding himself, etc. These theories Fenichel looks upon as a logical continuation of Freud's theories on technique.
Fenichel criticizes adversely Reich's theory that psychic conflicts are layered in orderly sequence, and considers also that the understanding of the resistances 'frozen' into behaviour can only come gradually as the case unfolds itself. Fenichel then proceeds to outline Kaiser's paper, which he criticizes most severely. He holds that if Kaiser's ideas were carried further they would lead to a neglect of the unconscious and its specific characteristics.