Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book considers most of the clinical concepts, their original elaborations in the second phase of psychoanalysis. Clinical concepts of the sort include, for example, resistance, a concept that refers to a set of clinical phenomena but can also be seen as a specific manifestation of the operation of the mechanisms of defence. The wish to give a precise definition of a concept, particularly a clinical one, cannot be entirely fulfilled if it is to be used in a variety of situations. The psychoanalytic theory of the mind has undergone substantial elaboration since Sigmund Freud, and the gap between psychoanalytic theories and their application has steadily widened. Accordingly, it has become all the more important to consider and reconsider the clinical concepts of psychoanalysis. The free associations of the patient in analysis were also regarded as disguised derivatives of unconscious wishes.