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, then, 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. Through the transference the analyst can come to know how the patient’s mind actually works, the phantasies, the unconscious motives and meanings that are at play. Some analysts insist that transference interpretations are the mainstay of the psychoanalytic venture. Psychoanalysts tend to shy away from clinically addressing religious beliefs.
