ABSTRACT
On a recent Panel of the American Psychoanalytic Association opened by Jane Kite, she noted that notwithstanding the confusing mix of theoretical perspectives confronting psychoanalysts today, the bottom line was, nonetheless, that all psychoanalytic thought revolves around an assumption of unconscious mental life. In The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud used his own dreams to demonstrate, through their analysis, the ever-present unconscious mind and its mechanisms. The impossible challenge of remaining constantly aware of this presence is no better demonstrated than in Freud's own natural, human difficulty in taking account of it when addressing his public in his book. The analysts technical or theoretical views that have led to this neglect will be considered, and the material reconsidered from the viewpoint that aims to re-centre psychoanalytic practice onto unconscious processes in patient and analyst alike. Some representatives of the British object relations school reflect a similar tendency. Thus, for example, H. Guntrip, who places great emphasis on "material", external reality.
