The limitations of psychoanalysis and its applicability in the session in 'Analysis terminable and interminable' are examined in terms of one-person and two-person psychology conceptual frameworks. Freud's requirement of 'distance' between 'past' and 'present', as well as emphasis on uncovering the influences of the past and on crisis as a limitation, relate to his use of a one-person (meta)psychology with a biological bent.

'Self-less' altruism, involving a transposition of self and object, illustrates the conceptual limitation of one-person psychology. The transposed configuration corresponds to the early conflict, prior to the establishment of preconscious memories, it appears through repetition as an actual conflict with the analyst. This early conflict is to be distinguished from the childhood conflict, appearing through the verbal associations and screen memories of the transference neurosis.