After having recalled the definitions of theory, of technique and of ritual, the author states that substantial agreement initially existed between theory and technique, which attempted to bring about the emergence of a memory of some traumatic event. Emphasis on fantasies shifted theoretical interest to the mind and its functioning. As a result, personality changes came to be considered more important than curing symptoms. Technically speaking, the most significant changes had to do with free associations and the analyst's passivity. Since the customary metapsychology tends to transform the psychoanalytic process into a ritual, the author proposes to develop a fundamentally empirical theory involving a technique that is therapeutic and maturational of the personality. This technique is implemented through a number of specific procedures: the rules of the setting, identification with the analyst, changes in affectivity in the analyst-analysand relationship, and the construction of analytic narratives.