Reisner's (1991) article and Holt's (1992) commentary promulgate serious misunderstandings of the place of relational considerations both in the Freudian corpus and in the writings of second- and third-generation theorists. Specifically, the contention that ego psychologists narrowed and systematized a rendition of Freud as a drive theorist for whom endogenous, biological, nonpsychological force is central and relational dynamics are peripheral is challenged. The contributions of these theorists are highlighted and compared with Reisner's and Holt's contentions.

To demonstrate that psychoanalysis considers real experience in general and social experience in particular to be determiners of behavior is to bang on an open door. (Rapaport, 1960, p. 62)