ABSTRACT
The purpose of psycho-analytical treatment is to establish, restore, or increase the patient's capacity for object relationships and to correct various distortions thereof. The analyst's various technical procedures are designed to establish a relationship between himself and the patient. After the analyst has introduced the patient into the analytical situation, explicit, symbolic communication begins. The analyst tries to widen the patient's endopsychic perceptual field by Informing him of details and relations within the total configuration of his present mental activity, which for defensive reasons he has been unable to notice or communicate himself. Many patients would assume that the only possible motive the analyst could have for verbalizing his interest in the patient would be that it was insincere. In addition therefore to their symbolic function of communicating ideas, interpretations also have the sign-function of conveying to the patient the analyst's emotional attitude towards him.
