“to learn the noble game…” The Transformation of the Listening Process into a Therapeutic Instrument with Special Reference to Analytic Memory

“He who hopes to learn the noble game of chess from books will soon discover that only the opening and closing moves of the game admit of exhaustive systematic description … the rules which can be laid down for the practical application of psychoanalysis in treatment are subject to similar limitations” (Freud, 1913, p. 121). Thus are we cautioned by Freud, and as we all know, he in fact left few papers specifically addressed to technique, although there are many references to technical matters in his other work, especially the case histories: hints, explications, warnings, proscriptions, descriptions, and so forth, that—since they are founded on universally available and timeless observations—are as valid today as they were yesterday, and will be tomorrow.

Of course, the literature of psychoanalysis is replete with references to technique. This Colloquium honors Dr. Etchegoyan, whose book (1991) stands in major testimony to the communication of an ever-increasing accumulation of published clinical experience. Dr. Etchegoyan performs a service of great significance to all clinicians in this giant step toward organizing and sharing these individual experiences, thoughts, and formulations.

There is, however, another implicit lesson to be learned from the book, and this is in regard to psychoanalytic education in general.