CONVERGENCES AND DIVERGENCES IN CONTEMPORARY 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. Great er emphasis is found on character defences and the unconscious meaning s of the 'here-and-now'. Also noted are trends toward translating unco nscious conflicts into object-relations terminology, as well as toward considering a multiplicity of royal roads to the unconscious. Regardi ng divergences, significant controversies continue about the importanc e of the 'real' relationship, and the therapeutic versus the resistanc e aspect of regression. Divergences also continue regarding reconstruc tion and recovery of preverbal experience, drawing the lines between p sychoanalytic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, the role of empathy, a nd the relation of historical to narrative truth.