ABSTRACT
T he observer of the psychoanalytic1 scene who sets himself the task of discerning new developments in technique suffers disadvantages compara ble to those of the interpreter of contemporary or near-contemporary his tory: he is too close to the events and too much under their sway to view them in proper perspective. Personal biases and idiosyncrasies are bound to influence his evaluations and judgments, which inevitably will bear the stamp of his time. Seemingly significant advances may in the larger perspec tive of the history of science prove to be blind alleys; conversely, future advances may come from today's unnoticed or neglected developments. W e still live under the shadow of Freud's revolutionary discoveries, in rela tion to which contemporary developments seem rather modest. This is not
1 The terms analyst and therapist and their corollaries psychoanalysis and psychotherapy will be used more or less interchangeably, except where alleged differences are discussed. In general, the generic terms therapist and psychotherapy seem preferable because they are more neutral and less “loaded.” Whatever the specific differences between psycho analysis and psychotherapy may turn out to be, it seems reasonable to consider psycho analysis a specialized form of psychotherapy.
