ABSTRACT
The development of orthodoxies, conceivably essential in the early consolidation and
affirmation of any theory as it grows up, was perhaps even more pressing in the case of
psychoanalysis: a remarkably unscientific science, it sought ‘theory’ as a defence against
accusations of illogicality. Yet in its ‘apparently illogical method of enquiry’,
non-scientific but rational in its approach, dependent on free association, psychoanalysis
equally requires a rigour of thought and appraisal to be brought to its findings-and
orthodoxies can militate against such evaluation. It is not at all surprising that those who
lie between Freud and Klein also find important creativity, transitional space and
phenomena, the active presence of the therapist, and a therapeutic process that keeps in
mind the early infant-mother relationship. The focus is on the process-and the affect
within it.
