ABSTRACT
The vertical axis, related to a genetic rather than a systematic exposition, involves a premiss of growth dependent on psycho-mechanics, an alternation of particularization and generalization, successive saturations, and emotional drives. The "alternation between particularization and abstraction" as a method of describing a theory is open to the objection that "abstraction" is a term that implies removal of a quality from something. One of the advantages of the grid is that its use in thinking about material that emerges in psycho-analytic practice stimulates reconsideration of familiar phenomena such as dreams or Oedipal material and their corresponding psycho-analytical theoretical formulations. The ability of an analyst to retain the substance of his training and experience and yet achieve a naif view of his work allows him to discover for himself and in his own way the knowledge gained from his predecessors.
