Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association: Stanley L. Olinick. 'Some Considerations on the Use of Questioning a Psychoanalytic Technique.'

Questioning, though a basic therapeutic tool, has been taken for granted and given little attention as a subject for study. The judicious use of questioning may facilitate the analyst's function of free floating attention. A question may be less harmful than a blunt statement. The former avoids the definiteness and dogmatism of the latter, and suggests the possibility of a joint exploratory effort. Systematic enquiry may be regarded as a parameter or deviation from the basic model of technique (Eissler). Questioning may interfere with the transference, and this effect may not be abolished by interpretation and working through. Under ordinary circumstances questioning is self-eliminating once a relevant answer has been obtained. Extensive questioning is often due to counter-transference influences. Questioning may be resented, feared, and resisted by the patient, or it will be welcomed. The reaction will depend upon the predominant psychical constellations. Questioning is indicated in the following instances: (1) inarticulate borderline neurotics; (2) the patient in an acute state of anxiety; (3) enquiry into obsessional data; (4) with the psychotic patient, particularly the schizophrenic; (5) in the interpretation of resistance. The author takes pains to point out that questioning is only a preliminary manoeuvre and a preparation for interpretation and subsequent working through.