ABSTRACT
The concept of psychoanalytic paradigms bears directly on the problem of prescription and description. Psychoanalytic technique, however, is often presented in the imperative mode, as an injunction, a prescription. Arguments over prescription, and the resultant neglect of description led to a neglect of investigation of relevant lines of convergence among theories as well as of explication of genuine differences, a fact which is especially important when discussing interpersonal and object relations approaches. It follows from a descriptive perspective that theories which look at personality development similarly necessarily are more alike than different in their understanding of the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis. A theory of object relations is necessarily an aspect of every psychoanalytic theory. Theories within a given paradigm approach the question of the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis similarly to other theories with the same paradigm, and quite differently than theories within the opposing paradigm.
