ABSTRACT
Interpretations are judged by several factors. The accuracy of psychoanalytic interpretations is commonly judged by whether they fit with an accepted theoretical formulation. Interpretations that work are good enough to stimulate new patterns of oscillation. A central feature of the coupled oscillator model is the emergence of something new and interesting, not simply the repair of the psychic apparatus to some predetermined point of excellence. The psyche is a dynamic system, always changing and developing. The model of development that Freud and many of his followers adopted included a picture of mature psychological functioning that was essentially unchanging once in place. In this model, pathology in the mature individual results from past developmental failures, which it may be possible to remedy through therapeutic regressions that allow for the reworking of aspects of development.
