Technique and final cause in psychoanalysis: Four ways of looking at one moment

Abstract

This paper argues that if one considers just a single clinical moment there may be no principled way to choose among different approaches to psychoanalytic technique. One must in addition take into account what Aristotle called the final cause of psychoanalysis, which this paper argues is freedom. However, freedom is itself an open‐ended concept with many aspects that need to be explored and developed from a psychoanalytic perspective. This paper considers one analytic moment from the perspectives of the techniques of Paul Gray, Hans Loewald, the contemporary Kleinians and Jacques Lacan. It argues that, if we are to evaluate these techniques, we must take into account the different conceptions of freedom they are trying to facilitate.

Key words:

• applied analysis
• ethics
• freedom
• interpretation
• psychoanalytic education
• research
• technique
• transference

Notes

1. Phillips gives as an example the idea that there is sexual content in this moment: the word ‘fuck’ occurs twice in two sentences each of which also has the phrase ‘I want’ and an explicit reference to ‘you’, the analyst. And he notes Loewald’s claim that, in the termination phase, male analysands regularly sexualized internalization fantasies – such as fellatio of or impregnation by the analyst (Phillips, 2006, p. 157; Loewald, 1973, p. 327).

2. This formulation is due to Dr. Nancy Olson. See her marvelous contribution in Levenson et al. (2006).