Interpretation and the psychic future

The author applies the analyst's multi-faceted awareness of his or her view of the patient's psychic future to analytic process. Loewald's (1960) interest in the way in which the analyst anticipates the future of the patient was linked to his epistemological assumptions about the analyst's superior objectivity and maturity relative to the patient. The elucidation of the authority of the analyst (e.g. Hoffman, 1991, 1994) allows us to begin to disentangle the analyst's view of the patient's psychic future from some of these epistemological assumptions. Clinical illustrations attempt to show how the analyst's awareness of this aspect of the interpretive process is often deconstructed over time and can help to understand aspects of resistance from both analyst and patient. This perspective may provide one more avenue for understanding our various modes of influence through interpretive process.