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Dear Sirs,
Schachter (2004) asserts that the Analytic Process Scales (APS) group, in reporting on three treatments (Waldron et al., 2004), called the treatments psychoanalyses only for external reasons—that they were conducted by psychoanalysts, four times weekly on the couch. Yet our paper demonstrates our efforts to define psychoanalysis and determine the degree to which it is present.
Schachter states that ‘there are no agreed upon independent criteria for [what constitutes] psychoanalytic treatment’ (2004, p. 754). We explained our effort over nearly two decades to find empirical criteria which could be agreed upon. This is reflected in the title: ‘What happens in a psychoanalysis …’ (my italics). We define and illustrate five core analytic activities, arrived at by iterative study by our group of several recorded analyses. We brought to this task an average of over 35 years of clinical experience each, and we benefited from critiques offered by many equally experienced psychoanalysts over the course of several years. In our opinion, the definitions described in the article have face validity, which Schachter does not specifically challenge.