Interpretations For New Era Psychoanalysis

Interpretations have been widely considered to be an important tool in achieving a breakthrough in dynamic therapies. This dates back to Freud’s work on neurosis, mainly based on the study of hysteria, according to which, the function of the neurotic symptom was to defend the patient's personality against an unconscious trend of thought that was unacceptable to it, while at the same time gratifying the trend up to a certain point. It seemed to follow, therefore, that if the analyst were to investigate and discover the unconscious trend and make the patient aware of it—if he were to make what was unconscious conscious—the whole raison d'être of the symptom would cease and it must automatically disappear.(1,2) This could be achieved by interpretations.