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The psychoanalytic method was first developed as a procedure for gathering data on intrapsychic functioning both within a human system and in the interaction of systems with each other. Skill in the procedure was learned within the framework of regular meetings between patient and analyst, at a fixed time, place and fee. Analytic candidates were taught to study the forces interfering with spontaneous communication within the analytic session and to learn to intervene to resolve blocks to communication.
Because the psychoanalytic method of investigation constitutes a natural experiment in which psychic events occur repetitively, it is difficult to separate research from practice. Psychoanalytic practice was and is the setting in which conclusions about emotional and mental functioning are drawn and made explicit. According to , “Each patient the candidate treats is a subject of research into the unique patterning of instinctual forces that comprise that individual as well as a representative of the general laws governing psychic functioning.”
Candidates training to be psychoanalysts begin their training by working on their observational skills in the classroom, in supervision of case work, and in case conferences. They are taught to use the analytic session to make increasingly more accurate observations and to recognize their own biases.
Meanings emerge as patients present their mental and emotional experience and report their dreams, fantasies, symptoms, psychotic