The author considers the historical forces of intense resistance that forced the initial path of psychoanalysis into its isolated position. But since the end of World War II, the influence of psychoanalysis on American psychiatry has been great. Changes in analytic theory and technique have brought analysis into closer integration with general psychotherapeutic practice. The shift of emphasis to ego psychology renders biological roots of psychoanalytic theory and id psychology unnecessary, and modifications in technique have broadened the usefulness of analysis. Technical features, such as five sessions a week or using the couch, are not in themselves the sine qua non of analysis, and the analyst can no longer be neutral in the old rigid sense. The breakdown of the previously sharply delimited borders between psychoanalytic and psychiatric practice Marmor sees as an inevitable and beneficial trend.