ABSTRACT
This chapter explores "How and why do psychotherapists' theoretical and technical models change". This question was the basis for a study carried out at the Uruguayan Psychoanalytic Institute and presented by Bernard and his colleagues at the Society for Psychotherapy Research in Montevideo in 2001. The chapter also explores "What is specific about the nature and consequence of analytic practice". This was debated in the House of Delegates of the International Psychoanalytical Association during the work of the Committee on Psychoanalytic Specificity in 1996. R. Bernardi's study raises crucial questions concerning the status of evidence in the development of psychoanalytic theory and technique and the related issue of the failure of empirical research to have impact on clinical work. The Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research programme is directly responsive to four points: the analyst's clinical scan, clinical confirmation, specifying changes in functioning within the session and application of objective research methods.
