ABSTRACT
One of the aims of the present book, obviously, has been to explain the principles of dynamic psychotherapy; but another, which is really much more important, has been to abstract from the principles of psychoanalysis the core of scientific truth, which we may call the science of psychodynamics. I do not believe that anyone truly impartial can fail to accept certain psychodynamic phenomena as scientific facts. This applies, for instance, to * defence, anxiety, and hidden feeling', and hence the existence of 'the unconscious'; the 'return of the repressed'; transference; and the validation of these concepts through direct observation of the response to interpretation. It does not apply to such concepts as 'oral, anal, and genital', or the libido theory, both of which are in my opinion over-simplifications based on a narrow and unsatisfactory view of human instinct. The slavish adherence to them has held up the proper understanding of human beings for generations.
