9. The Psychoanalytic Process

Although we have discussed various aspects of psychoanalytic treatment in the foregoing chapters, we have not focussed our attention on the role these aspects play in the therapeutic process as a whole. We have concentrated on segments of greatly varying duration within the course of treatment and alternated between macro- and microperspectives of the analytic process (see Baumann 1984). We have on the one hand used a magnifying glass to concentrate on small facets of treatment, such as the patient's questions, and on the other hand investigated the analyst's general treatment strategies — while maintaining the necessary distance to detail.

Psychoanalytic treatment can be characterized in many ways. A wide variety of metaphors have been used to delineate the characteristic and essential features of psychoanalysis. We have discussed Freud's comparison of the analytic process with chess, as well as the analogies that he saw between the analyst's activities and those of the archaeologist, painter, and sculptor (Chaps. 7 and 8). Although Freud left no doubt that the analyst can decisively influence the course of analysis, either for better or for worse, he placed more emphasis on the autonomous course of analysis:

The analyst … sets in motion a process, that of the resolving of existing repressions. He can supervise this process, further it, remove obstacles in its way, and he can undoubtedly vitiate much of it. But on the whole, once begun, it goes its own way and does not allow either the direction it takes or the order in which it picks up its points to be prescribed for it. (1913c, p. 130, emphasis added)

Implicit in these metaphors are theories and models which we now want to identify. Sandler's (1983) demand that the dimension of private meaning in concepts be worked out in order to achieve real progress is also directed at the practicing analyst:

Research should be directed toward making explicit the implicit concepts of practising psychoanalysts, and it is suggested