ABSTRACT
The work of Ferenczi and Balint shows that the approach to therapy does not remain unaffected by theory. Fairbairn has latterly turned his attention to the problems of psychotherapy. When he was working out his revision of theory, he had indicated that object-relations theory must have a bearing on therapeutic technique. Psychodynamic theory has progressed by successive re-orientations. It was first re-orientated from neuropsychiatry, in the earlier work of Freud, by the concept of the need to satisfy and control discrete instinct-entities rooted in biological drives. The position that seems to be emerging is that at all stages psychotherapy has to be an appropriate mixture of mothering and analysis. In non-technical language, the purpose of psychotherapy may be amply stated as that of helping the patient to grow till he feels strong enough in himself to be capable of living without unrealistic fears of internal origin and their attendant hates, guilts, defences and conflicts.
