This symposium, conducted by members of the Psychoanalytic Society of Paris, is divided into two parts: the first, reconstructions in psychoanalysis; the second, the effects of interpretations in analytic therapy. In his introduction Lebovici presents a brief, systematic survey of explanatory statements, from Freud to Ernst Kris, on the theoretical and technical aspects of reconstructions; their nature, content, and role in psychoanalysis. Reconstructions, though essential in psychoanalytic therapy, can become monotonous, mechanical, and stereotyped at the expense of their effective use in undoing pathological consequences of traumatic events, or fantasied equivalents, in the life history of the