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Despite how often analysts speak about it, the concept of the analytic process remains elusive. The word process, as Boesky (1990) points out, is both a verb and a noun. As a verb, to process, it causes us little difficulty. But as a noun, the analytic process, it is no longer something happening; it is a thing, something we picture, and we can argue over that picture. According to the dictionary (Webster's, 1964, cited by Arlow & Brenner, 1990), it is, in fact, two things. It is both a development and a method of achieving that development. Hence, we argue over both what the process is and what the analyst's role in it should be.
One way of understanding the process is to suggest that it is synonymous with psychoanalysis itself; that is, with what is essential to psychoanalysis. And here the disagreements begin. What defines an analytic process as opposed to some other process? Looked at operationally, must an analytic process include evidence of free association, interpretation and working through (Vaughan et al., 1997)? With respect to content, must the work include a focus on the dynamic unconscious? On patterns of defence and resistance? On transference? On counter-transference? On the influence of childhood experience, the role of infantile sexuality or the centrality of the Oedipus complex?
All of these have been suggested as essential to any consideration of analytic process (Abend, 1990), but do analysts agree on any of them? While most might accept as essential a focus on what is dynamically unconscious, not all do, and those that do disagree about the nature and content of unconscious activity (Smith, in press). Furthermore, our differences only increase as we expand the list. What about evidence of change? If process implies development, surely that means change. Can there be an analytic process without evidence of change? What sort of change? Intrapsychic change? Symptom relief? Are therapeutic goals a part of the analytic process, as Renik (2