ABSTRACT
Throughout the history of psychoanalysis, the so-called "theories of the mind" have been the changing models of the mental apparatus that analysts think they are using in listening to, observing and trying to understand their patients and themselves. Reading psychoanalytical literature gives one the impression that analysts operate in their consulting rooms using certain theories and that they make their interpretations accordingly. Psychoanalytical papers can be seen as technical papers about the psychoanalytic method and how the analyst's mind seems to operate in the analytic situation. This is very similar to what happens in the arts where painters are always exploring paint as a method of representing their life experiences. Musicians explore the use of sound with the same idea, and literary artists likewise are attempting the same exploration of words. A close link exists between the psychoanalytic method as a research into technique, and the arts as research in craftsmanship.
