ABSTRACT

In this chapter, the author spells out some of the implications of the relational turn for the theory of the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis. He discusses that ideas as to what constitutes a good life will also be found in ideas about what constitutes a good analysis. Melanie Klein differed sharply with Anna Freud on the role of ego-supportive interventions in psychoanalysis. Klein and her followers did not compromise on the centrality of interpretation in psychoanalytic technique, although the object of interpretation in Kleinian psychoanalysis differs from that in Freudian psychoanalysis. Jung differed from Freud in de-emphasizing sexuality as the primary driving force in human life. The therapeutic action of psychoanalysis derived from the analyst's making himself available as a person to the patient to help make a breach in the patient's closed system of internal reality. The therapeutic action depends on the ability of patient and analyst to examine carefully the nature of their interaction.