ABSTRACT
Steve Tublin states that rendering his intent explicit compels the analyst to know, as much as that is possible, what he considers essential to a satisfying existence, what sort of mind he believes allows for the creation of such a life and what he is capable of doing, via the ritualized application of his craft to advance that aim. There is an inherent conflict in relational psychoanalysis between the freedom required to respond to contextually bound clinical moments and the discipline required to conduct a coherent, purposeful psychoanalytic treatment. In the relational paradigm, the moment of engagement is shaped by both participants in ways they only partially understand. Irwin Hoffman's innovations have focused on his accounts of deviations from classical technique, but more recently, he has reemphasized the extent to which it is the oscillation between the two modes: spontaneity and ritual that promotes analytic change.
