General theories of therapeutic action are related to their respective underlying theories of the nature of pathology. Competing or overlapping theories emphasize one or another aspect of the analytic situation, with corresponding implications for technique. In addition to briefly summarizing a number of such theories and recommendations, the author points to another dimension of therapeutic response that reflects individual features of patients' psychopathology. Many if not all patients have conscious and unconscious views about being influenced to change that originate in their past relationships. Thus it is important for analysts to attend to their analysands' fantasies about treatment, influence, and change in the hope that careful analysis of those elements may beneficially affect treatment outcome. Case vignettes illustrate this aspect of technique.