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Without going back to what psychoanalysis was in the early days (its birth and the first phases of its evolution being nowadays known by all) I would like on my part rather to indicate certain aspects of its current development and some of its perspectives. It should be fully understood that I shall limit myself to 'certain aspects', as my aim is not to sketch a complete picture of the current tendencies within it, as these are numerous, varied and at times unfortunately prefer to ignore one another.
It seems, however, striking to all that the current development testifies for the most part to a better knowledge of the countertransference, which in turn allows for a better governing and mastery of it. This fact appears to me to be particularly important as it allows for a lessening of the transference neurosis to an indispensable minimum, thus hastening the easing and dissolution of the transference link.
It seems to me that what is most important in order to obtain such a result is not so much what the analyst says as what he is. It is precisely what he is in the depths of himself—his real availability, his receptivity and his authentic acceptance of what the other is—which gives value, pungency and effectiveness to what he says.
The communication from one unconscious to another which becomes established in the transference relationship between therapist and patient permits the latter to perceive the profound benevolent attitude of the physician. Thus the old wound due to frustration, the instigator of the infantile neurosis, will be erased. The cure will then be possible.
The future of psychoanalysis would appear to gain by a movement towards giving value to what Hartmann, Kris and Loewenstein have described as the autonomous ego—a term which I have adopted in an article entitled 'The role of the autonomous ego in the blossoming of the human being'.
The autonomous ego, by virtue of its autonomy, escapes the zone of conflict. It achieves a place in the human psych