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Paradigmatic psychotherapy evolved in response to therapeutic needs that cannot be met by standard methods of interpretation. Conceptually, it approaches a theory of treatment which bridges the divide between the latest advance of the classical Freudian school, ego psychology (19), and the work of the object-relations schools of therapy (10, 16).
Certainly the background of a highly authoritarian and paternalistic culture contributed to the historic emergence of Freud's revolutionary theory of psychic organization and function, and it is hardly the exclusive result of scientific progress that psychoanalysts of today turn their sights to the problems associated with narcissism. Contemporary society reinforces addictive, voyeuristic, unstructured and fantasy-laden experience and through increased opportunities for mobility and the impact of the communications media exposes the child from infancy to a bewildering and stimulating array of role enactments and behavioral options (31). In consequence we are obliged to evolve techniques for the treatment of patients (1) whose span of attention is comparatively attenuated because of the kaleidoscopic fragmentation of life experiences, (2) who are conditioned to simultaneously ward off stimuli and to crave stimuli (e.g., the child who cannot do homework unless the radio or TV is on), and (3) who are more provisional and transitory in their conscious identifications and less ready to cathect any particular therapeutic agency or method of treatment.