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Lack of distinction between three variables are responsible for the lowering of the standards of discussion of psycho-analytic technique. These three variables are: the patient's disorder and personality, the patient's present life circumstances and the psycho-analyst's personality. The paper deals with the first variable only.
The pitfalls of flexibility of technique, of face to face interviews, and of advising and encouraging the patient are examined. Transference is not a tool of therapy but a source of energy, the analyst's most effective tool is interpretation. Another tool is questioning the patient. There is, however, a principal difference between questioning in the course of the analytic process and for the purpose of conducting an interview. In the treatment of phobias the analyst may 'impose on the patient a command'. This is a tool of an entirely different type.
A deviation from the basic model technique of psycho-analysis might be called a parameter of the technique. Parameters have probably a lasting effect on the patient's transference which cannot be undone by intepretations. In neither schizophrenia nor delinquency can the technique of free association be applied; in both cases the whole technique must be changed in all essential aspects. Four criteria are laid down which a parameter has to fulfil if it can be accepted as being part of the psycho-analytic technique. Doubt is expressed whether schizophrenia has so far ever been treated by the basic model technique (free associations and interpretations). Psycho-analysis is effective in the treatment of schizophrenia, but there are fundamental differences when compared with the therapy of neurosis.
Parameters of psycho-analytic technique are enforced by those alterations in the patient's mental functioning and response which Freud called ego-modifications. A tentative comparison is made between neurotic and schizophrenic ego modifications. Among several parameters two are important in the