ABSTRACT
What Freud did in his case histories was given as follows: classified the clinical material, correlated the symptoms with infantile sexuality, called the process ‘reconstruction,’ and created the therapeutic techniques of psychoanalysis as talk therapy. Wilhelm Reich added that making conscious what had been unconscious needs to occur indirectly, by eliminating the patient’s resistance. Theodore Reik’s observations suggest that humans have a deep need to communicate our deepest parts to others. Further, his observations lend support to my own theory of preconscious communication. This understanding leads me to a detailed study of the processes involved in confession, and most importantly, it has influenced my own understanding of the value of what I have previously labeled: a Presenter’s ‘gratuitous remarks’ (seemingly random remarks that occur during a clinical presentation that are in fact rich with preconscious/conflictual meaning). Reik’s ideas help to explain what we will see in the many ways that clinician/Presenters seem to be compelled to tell all of what they have experienced with their patient—their conscious experiences as well as their preconscious ones.
