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The minute-by-minute, session-by-session behavior of the psychoanalyst in his investigation and treatment of his patient is one of the least described and discussed aspects of psychoanalysis. Clearly, experienced analysts are very often not self-conscious in their clinical behavior and, perhaps, should not be. They are not usually very exhibitionistic about it either. Because of this, detailed discussion of psychoanalytic method and clinical technique are very scarce, poor, and frequently embarrassing. A common sign of this trouble in psychoanalytic discourse is the phrase: "It then became clear that…" Further, and most important, the theory and practice of psychoanalysis cannot progress far under these contraints.
Emanuel Peterfreund has tried to correct this trend toward stagnation. In The Process of Psychoanalytic Therapy he has brought the daily observations, inferences, and interventions of psychoanalytic practice under scrutiny and has tried to discern the principles involved. Peterfreund is concerned with saving psychoanalysis from what he considers to be its gravest danger: unscientific clinical process. Because of this, according to him, theoretical propositions hardly ever achieve adequate validation.
Unfortunately, Peterfreund expresses himself in this book in a