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The writer's discussion of the timing of confrontations and of interpretations demonstrates that psychoanalytic technique is not mere craft lore, but a set of devices firmly anchored in classical psychoanalytic theory and compatible with, e.g., the theory of Gestalt psychology. The therapeutic effectiveness of psychoanalytic technique is a direct consequence of its being rooted in psychoanalytic theory.
Confrontations consist in a restatement of the patient's productions in such a manner as to elicit further productions of a type which will endow the rudimentary Gestalt produced up to that point with the quality of Prägnanz. Confrontations are timely when they consolidate existing gains and help elicit new material which can then be interpreted in terms of what had already been produced up to the time when the confrontation was made.
Interpretations add the quality of intelligibility to the patient's productions. They are properly timed when the patient is ready for them, i.e., when the patient experiences a 'push toward the closure' of the Gestalt which he had produced up to that point, only the closure element itself being repressed. The interpretation supplies this closure element. When several ways of completing the Gestalt in a system-adequate manner are possible, the closure element to be supplied by the interpretation is the one which is compatible with the patient's main current preoccupations. This explains the effectiveness of well-timed interpretations. The neurotic Gestalt becomes closed; an Aufgabe, in Zeigarnik's sense, is thereby completed and is thus disposed of psychologically. The psychic material and energy tied up in this neurotic Gestalt then disintegrates, and becomes available for reality-oriented Gestalten and activities. The 'neurotic closure' theory is substantiated by reference to Pötzl's experiments with tachistoscopically presented images.
AUTHOR'S ABSTRACT