Some Reflections On The Work Of Theodor Reik

Theodor Reik's place as one of the leading pioneers of psychoanalysis is certainly beyond dispute. Of his many contributions I shall focus on but two: the development of nonmedical psychoanalysis in the United States and the spirit behind one main line in the history of psychoanalytic technique, the emphasis on intuition in the analyst's response.

It is to Reik's everlasting credit that he stood fast on principle and did not yield on the issue of training in psychoanalysis for nonmedical persons. What he did instead was to found the first American training institute where medical training was not a prerequisite for psychoanalytic training. Thus the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis (NPAP) was created. At the present time, nonmedical analysis has become a force in its own right, having grown considerably since the early days of Reik's founding of NPAP.

My second point is a consideration of Reik's contribution to psychoanalytic technique. The two main lines in the history of psychoanalytic technique involve the role of insight and interpretation on the one hand and the role of the object on the other, in creating the therapeutic effect of psychoanalysis. The two main early figures for each are Glover2 for insight and Strachey6 for the object. Fenichel1 joined Glover, as it were, and stressed rational factors while Reik5 can be seen as in the same line as Strachey, stressing the object. I see the continuity of Strachey and Reik in the sense of each emphasizing factors away from the purely rational ones of correctness of interpretation. Naturally, Strachey and Reik are quite different in many important respects, but this is irrelevant to my current discussion. Reik emphasized the role of nonrational factors such as intuition, surprise, the use of the analyst's fantasy and so on. All through the