Symposium on Clinical Judgment in Relational Psychoanalysis: The Problem of Technique: Introduction

There are many experiences of contradiction in the practice of psychoanalysis. One of the most curious and problematic is the contradiction between, on one hand, the humanistic value placed on the unique and distinctive aspects of an analysis and, on the other hand, the analyst's desire to know and possess technical skill that is used across analytic cases. “Your technique should flow from your theoretical concepts,” instructed an early psychoanalytic supervisor of mine. She was responding to my desire to know what to do in a specific clinical situation. With youthful hubris, I told her I thought I knew what was going on, and what I wanted to know was exactly how I should phrase what I had to say to the patient. Her theory of technique stemmed from the Freudian notion that, if one understood the theory of mental functioning, then one could account for the patient's behavior and use any particular technique appropriate. In more recent times, the emphasis might be on developing techniques based on the particular dyad and its interpersonal and subjective natures.

Feelings of security and mastery often accompany the development of psychoanalytic technique, but at times these feelings also come with a sense of uneasiness. Confronted with similar clinical situations, we might worry about transplanting a phrase or behavior or attitude and thereby infringing on the unique, interactive matrix. The problem of technique raises a number of difficult questions for those psychoanalysts struggling to be disciplined, precise, creative, and simultaneously