ABSTRACT
The traditional view of the division of labor between the participants in each psychoanalytic encounter has assigned the task of free association to the analysand; by the same token, the work of interpretation has been placed in the hands of the analyst. Like other treatment experiences, psychoanalytic therapy creates new potentialities for adaptation by reformulating the meanings of the analysand’s personal history. Traditional explanations of the mode of action of psychoanalysis are confronted with the uncomfortable knowledge that all interpretations, even those which are essentially invalid, may have profound effects, provided they are not mere repetitions of existing ways of organizing information. Psychoanalytic therapy corrects for the cognitive deficits at the time the patient went through certain experiences crucial for his future development.
