In this, one of the last papers published before his death, Franz Alexander traced the evolution of some of his contributions to psychoanalytic thought. He stated his conviction that the therapeutic process could best be understood in terms of learning theory, and this paper represents an attempt to view the process of psychoanalytic therapy and the problem of 'emotional insight' in these terms. He

concluded that 'at present, we are witnessing the beginnings of a most promising integration of psychoanalytic theory with learning theory, which may lead to unpredictable advances in the theory and practice of the psychotherapies'.