ABSTRACT
This chapter talks about self-imposed in psychoanalysis and argues that this crisis is self-imposed by political and theoretical issues that have blinded the field to the powerful, flexible, and widely useful clinical nature of psychoanalysis as a broad treatment for a variety of psychological problems. The concept of Analytic Contact emphasizes this clinical goal. The clinical realities of modern practice should not interfere with the psychoanalyst attempting to work psychoanalytically with every patient that comes in for help. At the 2005 Congress of the International Psychoanalytic Association, German researchers from various psychoanalytic institutes presented a study in which they profiled the average private practice patient in psychoanalytic treatment. Psychoanalytic therapy aims at the modification of personality structure and developmental growth. The nature of psychoanalytic practice is one of constant struggle with less than ideal circumstances. Psychotherapy involves a different process and technique, which are indicated for patients whose psychic organization cannot support the classic method but requires a different praxis.
