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All modern techniques for studying the mind are in some way based on the basic principles of psychoanalysis, which must therefore be recognized to be a constant datum of thought and research. The social and moral character of this country causes the American psychoanalyst to be torn between utilitarianism and benevolence; for both the immediate need and the ultimate dilemma of man must be kept in mind. 'Watering down' has become a practical problem in the application of psychoanalytic discoveries. Many activities now separate the analyst from his study and his couch and join his special technique to those of other sciences. What is the consequence of this for psychoanalysis, the most refined instrument for research on the structure and operation of the individual human mind?
Twenty-five years ago psychoanalysis could be defined as a procedure that recognizes the unconscious and attempts to deal with transference and resistance. Today these concepts have shown themselves to be usefully applicable in psychotherapy as well. The crucial factor in psychoanalysis is its technique. It maintains optimum conditions for the evolution and resolution of an artificial neurosis, the transference neurosis, for which the original neurosis of childhood has been exchanged. The chief qualitative distinction of psychoanalysis from all other mental therapies is its effort to destroy the suggestive influence of the authority of the therapist. It aims to set the patient free. As an instrument of research, the analytic situation is a carefully controlled experiment in human relationships.
Analysts are under pressure from internal and external forces. There is a wish to make the patient get well by whatever means. 'Adjustment' tends to become the measure of psychic health and the goal of therapy, while we forget the cost to the potentialities of the free ego. Is this trend in psychoanalysis a retreat from freedom and a regression toward intellectual conformity? More recent advan