ABSTRACT
Empirical research is part of the International Psychoanalytical Association's fundamental objectives, and it was during Robert Wallerstein's presidency that the very principle of this objective was established. It is surprising that this principle was recognized so late, as we all know that the necessity of developing research, which is scientifically founded on the method and the effects of psychoanalytic treatment, has always been recognized. Without doubt die psychoanalytic cause needed to be defended in the area of this widening of clinical practice. Medical science was based to a great extent on clinical observation, and Anna Freud, faithful to his calling as a research investigator, found nothing shocking in moving from biological experimentation to the psychological observation of patients. Psychoanalysts find that the discovery that Freud and his successors have transmitted to them is sufficient, and they content themselves with being able to bear witness to it in each of the individual situations that they are called upon to treat.
