Introduction

In the first place I would like to tell the reader, in a few words, about what he will find in these ‘Studies’, and then refer to the book as a whole.

The first chapter is an ‘Introduction to Psycho-Analytic Technique’. The basic principles of analytic technique are pointed out, the way in which Freud came to establish them, and how these principles derive from the selfsame nature of psychological disorders and conflicts. Thus, at the same time the chapter contains a review of the evolution of psycho-analytic technique, of its past and its present. No previous knowledge of psycho-analysis is expected from the reader since the meaning of each of its fundamental concepts is explained.

While the introductory chapter is directed, then, to those who know little or nothing of analytic technique, the remaining chapters presuppose a certain knowledge, at least of the Introduction, but often much more, for they are destined for students of psycho-analysis and for analysts themselves.

The second chapter, ‘Classical and Present Techniques in Psycho-Analysis’, takes up each one of the main technical problems and deals with it in detail, discussing the different positions which diverse ‘periods’ and ‘schools’ (or ‘trends’) have taken towards these problems within the psycho-analytic movement. At the same time, this chapter, the most extensive one, tries to present a view of analytic technique as a whole, no longer elementary (as in the first chapter), but now with the depth current knowledge has attained.

Studies of specific technical topics begin with the next chapters, the first two (Chapters 3 and 4) being centred on what constitutes the axis of the analytic process, that is the transference, while the following ones are centred on what constitutes the counterpart of the transference in the analytic situation, its complement in the analyst, that is the countertransference. I have given special attention to the countertransference partly because of the important role it plays in t