ABSTRACT
The state of psychoanalysis is grim, given a declining number of patients seeking out what the public sees as an elitist, rigid treatment ill-suited for most presenting problems. The concept of analytic contact is designed to rescue the field of psychoanalysis by bypassing these ideological, political, and territorial debates and refocusing the treatment back to the clinical situation. A. Rothstein sees the patient’s objections to the parameters of analysis, such as frequency and use of couch as simply part of their resistances and transference reactions. In agreement with Rothstein, the clinical material has demonstrated that psychoanalysis, as defined by analytic contact, is the treatment of choice for the majority of all our patients. Analytic contact defines psychoanalysis as a broad treatment suitable for many if not all patients, which is centred on resolving inner conflict by means of interpretation and the exploration of transference, phantasy, affect, and defence.
