ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book describes what kind of change in a person’s functioning a psychoanalytic treatment seeks to achieve. It presents the theme of the analyst having to confront a resistance in him in order to understand the patient with focus on the analyst’s superego. The book reviews some analytic literature which suggests that the wish or need to pass judgement on oneself and others is ubiquitous and has to be considered by the psychoanalyst in his daily work. It reviews the origins of the concept and suggests reasons why it has largely fallen out of usage and describes what the analyst’s ego ideals may be and how they may conflict with each other under the pressures imposed by the clinical situation. The book considers how the analyst’s struggles with this conflict may be observed by the patient and plays their part in clinical progress.
