CONVERGENCES AND DIVERGENCES IN CONTEMPOR ARY PSYCHOANALYTIC TECHNIQUE

A broad survey of the psychoanalytic field reveals both convergences a nd divergences in technique. The major convergences include earlier in terpretation of the transference, increased focus on transference anal ysis, as well as growing attention to countertransference analysis and increasing concern with the risks of ''indoctrinating'' patients. Gre ater emphasis is found on character defences and the unconscious meani ngs of the ''here-and-now''. Also noted are trends toward translating unconscious conflicts into object-relations terminology, as well as to ward considering a multiplicity of royal roads to the unconscious. Reg arding divergences, significant controversies continue about the impor tance of the ''real'' relationship, and the therapeutic versus the res istance aspect of regression. Divergences also continue regarding reco nstruction and recovery of preverbal experience, drawing the lines bet ween psychoanalytic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, the role of empa thy, and the relation of historical to narrative truth.