ABSTRACT
The three-level model for observing patient transformations was developed by the International Psychoanalytical Association Committee on Clinical Observation to guide groups of psychoanalysts in observing change and no change in a patient in psychoanalysis, using a brief history and the verbatim records of selected psychoanalytic sessions. Several kinds of observation come into play in an analytic process, as well as in writing clinical reports and clinical papers, and a rich language for observational functions exists in all psychoanalytic cultures. The three-level model for observing patients’ transformations adopted the idea of using a “text” with brief history and selected sessions developed by Haydee Faimberg for her method based on “Listening to the listening”. “By listening to the patient’s reassignment of meaning to his interpretations, the analyst can discover the patient’s unconscious identifications and, together with the patient, thereby facilitate the process of psychic change”.
