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The Kleinian technique is psychoanalytical and strictly based on Freudian psychoanalytic concepts. The formal setting is the same as in classical Freudian analysis; the patient is offered five or six 50-minute sessions a week; a couch is provided for him to recline on, the analyst sitting behind him; he is invited to free-associate and the analyst interprets his associations.
Not only is this formal setting the same as in classical technique, but in all essentials the psychoanalytical principles as laid down by Freud are adhered to. The role of the analyst is confined to interpreting the patient's material, with all criticism, advice, encouragement, reassurance, etc., being rigorously avoided.
The interpretations are centered on the transference situation, taking up impartially manifestations of positive and negative transference as they appear. By transference I mean here not only the “here and now” relation to the analyst, but the relation to the analyst including reference to past relationships as transferred onto the analyst, and current problems and relationships in their interrelationship to the transference. Special attention is paid to the
This paper is extracted from a chapter in Psychoanalytic Techniques: A Handbook for the Practicing Psychoanalyst, Benjamin B. Wolman, Ph.D., Editor, soon to be published by Basic Books. A number of extensive references to clinical material and relevant literature had to be omitted in this context.
transference onto the analyst of internal figures from the patient's inner world.
The level at which the interpretations are given, again as indicated by Freud, is determined by the level of the patient's maximum unconscious anxiety. In those respects, the Kleinian analyst may be considered to follow the classical Freudian technique with the greatest exactitude, more so indeed than most other Freudian analysts who find that they have to alter their analytical technique in some of its essential aspects when dealing with pre-psycho