ABSTRACT

The analyst depicted in Freud’s Papers on Technique (1911–1915) struggles to split the patient’s stubborn desire by reframing it as memory. In contrast, after the structural theory was adopted, analysts could picture themselves as liberating rather than struggling with patients, since their design was to show that the patient’s fears are unrealistic. But North American analysts have come to doubt their ability to rule on what is and isn’t realistic. They thus find themselves again struggling with stubborn desires, not just easing fears. Their solution has been to emphasize – and thus detach from – enactments. These analysts would seem to be even more in need of the old ideals of procedure than were “classical” analysts, who thought they could use “reality” as a standard.