Reconstruction is clinically valuable for the patient and fundamental for the analyst. The analyst will inevitably use reconstruction in order to comprehend the patient and to understand how that adult has remained a disturbed child with that particular psychopathology. Although not necessarily specified, reconstruction remains a very important dimension of psychoanalytic technique that is regaining analytic attention.

After reviewing reasons for the shift of attention away from reconstruction, the significance of reconstruction is emphasized for restoring personality continuity and cohesion and for explaining neurotic repetition as it has developed in life and in the analytic transference. This utilization of reconstruction is illustrated in a case of anniversary depression, demonstrating the linkage between historical events and their intrapsychic interpretation and response, as well as the linkage between past and present, childhood and adult disorder.