Prologue: Reflections on Psychoanalytic Theory of Technique—Core Concept or Archaic Ritual

David Tuckett begins his article for this issue with: “This is an article about the psychoanalytic theory of the psychoanalytic clinical situation, which, in my view, has been a black hole in our thinking.” The editors believe that this view is shared by many psychoanalysts, either because (1) clinical theories require alteration because they do not help in reaching the depth and complexity of the experiences within the analytic relationship, the fluidity and amalgam of the rational and the irrational, the verbal and the metaphorical in a transformative process within a milieu of communication; and (2) the clinical theories should be discarded because they interfere with the spontaneity and creative openness that is necessary for the intimacy of a responsive analyst who is devoted to making coherence from the depth and complexity of his patient's and his emotional experiences.

Recently, Bob Herbert (2008) wrote an op-ed article in the New York Times. He argued that the vast amount of technological gadgets, such as cell phones, Blackberries, and Twitter, used by consumers today to communicate have interfered with their ability to relate to each other in a deep, caring, and useful fashion. He stated that in August Wilson's play “Joe Turner Come and Gone,” there is a character who says that everyone has a song inside of him or her, and that you lose sight of that song at your own peril. If you get out of touch with your song, forget how to sing it, you're bound to end up frustrated and dissatisfied. As he recalled a time when he was out of touch with his own song, he said, “Something wasn't making my heart smooth and easy.”

Psychoanalytic technology has been the application of our theories of the mind to the clinical situation, which we then define as our theories of technique, but they have deficiencies and are inadequate for the task. They provide a better understanding of the wor