ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author aims to illuminate the clinical theories that therapists carry with them into sessions where they operate implicitly, directing their attention to select sorts of data that are then used to fashion an intervention. This is the ultimate lesson of the Clinical Moments Project—to learn how to listen to how therapists listen to the unfolding material. The author talks about analysts ("commentators") of varying theoretical persuasions to weigh in, sharing what they think about the situation and how they imagine they might have proceeded. It may seem rather peculiar to be writing about the analyst’s concern for a third party – for someone who has been introduced by the patient into the analytic situation for whatever reason. The analyst’s interventions make abundantly clear to the patient the degree to which the patient’s inner world is being attended to on a moment-to-moment basis; even unconscious content fails to escape the analyst’s notice.
