ABSTRACT
All varieties of psychoanalytic therapy concern themselves with causality in that they look to those parts of the personality which are infantile, unperceived and pathogenic, seeking to bring them into consciousness. Once individuals can acknowledge this hidden dimension, they are better able to live an integrated inner life. Fürstenau (1977b) has described the mission of psychoanalysis as ‘the rendering conscious of residual infantile patterns, liable to keep people unconsciously tied to parents or parent representatives’. The psychoanalyst is not an operator with a patented technique to apply; he is implicated in the analytic process as an ordinary person with ordinary affective responses (Morgenthaler 1978). We are not talking about a rationally-driven, cognitive approach to the problems of childhood, but rather an exploration of infantile patterns of relating. Unconsciously, past constellations take shape afresh in new relationships. The analytic situation allows these workings to be observed in action and talked through ( Fürstenau 1977b ).
