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The field of observation and study of psychoanalysis is human behavior. The study of human behavior is certainly not the exclusive domain of psychoanalysis. However, with treatment as its unique goal, psychoanalysis does bring a distinct perspective to the larger body of knowledge of man's experience. Originating as a therapeutic method, psychoanalytic theory began to evolve as an attempt to explain the phenomena of the therapeutic transaction. Actually, a psychoanalytic theory as such does not exist. This is an inescapable fact, whether we restrict our attention to those theories which are considered classical and orthodox or broaden our considerations to include as well the schismatic theories. The explanatory problems inherent in psychoanalysis have never been satisfied by one theory. Freud himself presented a number of theories which he attempted to correlate into a coherent system. But a system of theories is not a single theory, and much confusion can be avoided when we realize the difference.
The history of psychoanalysis has been marked by many different approaches to theorizing about the phenomenal field of human behavior. This diversity could enrich the science, were it not for the unfortunate isolation and partisanship of the adherents of different theoretical positions. Considering the complexity of the field of study, it is not surprising that conflicting theories are developed to describe the same subject. The conflicts have often been fruitless only because the solutions have been limited to two extreme and unlikely alternatives. One characteristic solution, the entrenched parochialism of