The Genetic Approach in Psychoanalysis

The word "psychoanalysis" is commonly used to designate three things: a therapeutic technique, which we here call "psychoanalytic therapy", an observational method to which we here refer as "the psychoanalytic interview", and a body of hypotheses for which we here reserve the term "psychoanalysis". Two groups of hypotheses will be discussed: some dealing with dynamic and some dealing with genetic propositions. The former are concerned with the interaction and the conflicts of forces within the individual and with their reaction to the external world, at any given time or during brief time spans. The genetic propositions describe how any condition under observation has grown out of an individual's past, and extended throughout his total life span. Representative examples of dynamic propositions are those concerned with defense against danger and reaction to frustration. Genetic propositions state how these reactions come into being and are used in the course of an individual's life.

Psychiatrists, social workers and even social scientists base their findings frequently on a study of the past of the individual; however, in doing so, they need not have and frequently do not have genetic propositions in mind. The case record, that invaluable tool of modern medical and social exploration, or the psychiatric interview, may reveal that a conflict, a symptom or a pattern of behavior have occurred before. In using dynamic propositions the psychiatrist may reduce what appeared as a series of incomparable instances into a sequence of similar situations; when such regularity becomes perceivable, decisive progress will have been made. Thus we find the man who tends to drop his effort whenever in love or work an immediate competitor appears. This insight, however, is not gained with any genetic