The author examines the question of what interpretations do in an analysis, and how they produce a cure. Using reader-response criticism as the theoretical point of view, her main thesis is that effective interpretations are those through which the patient creates new meanings. The patient does this by filling in the gaps found in all interpretations. Priel provides an overview of the theoretical position of reader-response criticism and discusses examples from Freud, Lévi-Strauss, and Agnon which imply a perspective that is analogous to reader-response theory.