ABSTRACT
Philip Bromberg is one of the preeminent writers in psychoanalysis today. Bromberg begins by making dissociation central to unconscious process. For Bromberg, successful analytic work depends on engaging with patients in a way he describes as "authentic". Bromberg explains that productive psychoanalytic process is inherently nonlinear and chaotic. The primary value of the psychoanalytic enterprise lies in the ability of the analyst to see and to engage patients' range of states, including and especially, of course, those that have been dissociated. Reaching psychoanalytic goals cannot be planned, and prescribed technical procedures are more likely to thwart treatment than enhance it. For Bromberg, therapeutic action arises from the events of the patient-analyst relationship - which means that the analyst's way of being or engaging with a given patient always carries more weight than interpretation in the conduct and outcome of treatment.
