Tact has been presented as a specific psychoanalytic function of the analyst's work ego. It refers to a mode of activity which is mutative by virtue of its integrative nature, binding both narcissism and aggression through underlying maintenance of object relatedness and acceptance. It refers to a mode of utilization of knowledge gained both by cognitive understanding and by empathy; it is directly related to the timing and dosage of interpretations.

Tact represents the technical derivative of the therapeutic intention of the analyst to facilitate growth. The primary model of tact is that of good mothering at the time of the child's separation from the original symbiosis. A secondary model of tact is the parent's handling of the child's sexual exhibitionism with combined acceptance and limit setting.