Analytic technique: a reconsideration of the concept

Lipton's 1977 paper on "The Advantages of Freud's Technique …" is taken as a starting point to reconsider the concept of analytic technique itself. How an analyst works may be construed in terms of rules of the analyst's behavior, of principles underlying the analyst's behavior, or of the analyst's attitude that shapes how he or she acts on technical principles. The author argues that the analyst's attitude while acting on technical principles is an integral part of analytic praxis, and that it is a function of the analyst's character. As such, it is not generalizable as a "technique," yet it is often the case that an analyst will rationalize his or her character traits and think of them as a reproducible "technique." This has important consequences for teaching and supervising. The author suggests that the very idea of a reproducible analytic technique may inhibit the analyst's development of his or her own analytic voice. Other aspects of theorizing may also represent a conceptual confusion between what is personal and characterological and what is generalizable.