Follow the Fox: Edgar A. Levenson’s Pursuit of Psychoanalytic Process

Abstract

The author examines Edgar A. Levenson’s argument as presented in his two seminal texts (1972, 1983), placing this argument in the context of our work today. Levenson has contributed to a profound shift in our experience of psychoanalysis. By giving priority to psychoanalytic process, he spelled out the implications entailed in the fact that patient and analyst continually influence each other in clinical work. The ongoing relevance of Levenson’s work is evident first in his location of therapeutic action beyond understanding, that is, in the spontaneous interaction between patient and analyst, and second in his critique of our uses of abstraction, explanation, and theory.