[Psychoanalytic interventions: reflections on form]

The question of the form of analytic interventions is an important one in the context of the theory of analytic techniques. On the basis of 4 brief case descriptions, the author demonstrates that certain therapeutic situations call for a choice of language which echoes that employed by the analysand, thus representing something akin to the latter's inner voice and attaining a graphic, "dramatic" quality which facilitates contact with the archaic sides of the patient and also identification of regressive tendencies and/or severe communicative defects. In other situations it may be necessary to employ neutral, "objective", scientific parlance, for example when the transference of the analysand is openly erotic or hostile in character.