ABSTRACT

It is often noted that psychoanalysis is, on the one hand, a science using its own research technique and producing its own body of theory; on the other hand, it is a therapy in which theory is applied to relieve human suffering while clinical observation provides further data for scientific examination. Freud had always, in one fashion or another, been concerned with a number of factors that he believed were "decisive for the success or otherwise of analytic treatment." For most analysts, the statement from "Analysis Terminable and Interminable" quoted represents the principal theoretical frame of reference for understanding psychoanalytic therapy and the goals of analytic work. A few explanatory words are in order. It is people's impression that when Freud spoke of "repression," he was referring not just to the specific defense mechanism of repression but to the whole repertoire of defensive operations undertaken by the ego, both the infantile and the more mature.