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The author examines the tasks of an analyst and correlates these with the skills and tools which he must possess. Since the patient needs to learn more about himself, his capacity to communicate must be developed. In order to help the patient, the analyst should possess the capacity for communication. Also, in his work with the patient, the analyst must build a type of interpersonal relationship in which the analytic process can operate, i.e., in which the analyst uses himself as a special instrument to permit the patient to relive traumatic conflicts in the therapeutic situation. The patient must have confidence in the analyst's ability to see and understand more than he can. Therefore, the analyst must have the capacity for self-observation, which involves the split of the ego into observing and experiencing parts so that he can perceive and interpret communications from the patient and differentiate the patient's behavior from his own. Since the condition of abstinence facilitates the regulation of discharge processes and the regression necessary for the reproduction of infantile conflicts within the analytic situation, the analyst must be able to tolerate need tensions in himself and in the patient. He must control his own regression in order to use himself in empathic understanding of the regressions manifested by the patient in the transference, without loss of his own identity or reality-testing function. After arriving at a diagnostic interpretation, he must be able to interpret to the patient in such a way that it furthers the therapeutic process.