ABSTRACT

In order to understand the role played by theory in psychoanalysis, its development, and specific formation, it is necessary to become aware of the particularities of the relationship between theory and praxis that distinguishes psychoanalysis from other scientific fields. While J. A. Schulein conducted an epistemological study of the logic of psychoanalysis, in the 1980s Sandler developed a conception of private theories, which he distilled from the examination of the actual concrete use of theories by analysts in clinical practice. The implicit private part-theories formed during clinical work by individual analysts are often more suitable and useful than public theories. Y. Stein has examined how ties of loyalty not only bolster clinical thinking, but also hinder it, concealing lacunae in clinical theory or retarding the extension of concepts that clinically seemed readily applicable, yet remained in analysts’ implicit–private realm for far too long.