In this chapter we will familiarize our readers with specific problems that are of great practical significance. (45 pgs)

Dream interpretation enables analysts to get close to unconscious fantasies. The interpretations lead to the latent, i.e., the unconscious meaning of the dream. To be precise, then, the interpretation and not the dream itself is the via regia to the unconscious. (41 pgs)

This chapter focuses on the all-important step from the initial interview to therapy, complementing the corresponding chapter in Vol.1. This step can be demonstrated particularly clearly with regard to those patients who are often considered unsuited for psychoanalysis or analytic therapy. (91 pgs)

The rules are put to a test when the analyst pursues the question of whether the system of rules provides a given patient the best possible conditions for therapeutic change. The issue of the utility of rules is a good starting point for using them in a flexible manner, i.e., one in which they are applied in a manner appropriate to the individual patient, and for guiding the dialogue toward therapeutic goals (83 pgs)

We discuss the important issues of scheduling, remembering and retaining and of anniversary reactions from the perspective of time and place; the reconstruction of the historical and political factors that exert an influence on an individual’s life history; study of interpretations; a discussion of acting out; the topic of working through; and interruptions of treatment (accompanied by particular problems up until the final separation).(104 pgs)

The research into the process and outcome of psychoanalysis that we have initiated in Ulm has developed out of our experience with systematic case studies (Thomä 1978) and the investigation of interpretative actions.(121 pgs)

The following sections contain discussions of the function of process models and of the features essential for evaluating them, and a description of various conceptions of the process, including our own.(32 pgs)

In evaluating the interaction of theory and practice, it is essential to distinguish the growing treasure of knowledge and its systematization in the general and specific theories of neurosis from its appropriate therapeutic application.(27 pgs)

This chapter’s title, “Case Histories and Treatment Reports,” reflects the discord in Freud’s work between the theory of genesis and that of change. Our reconsideration leads us in the first section of this chapter to reject the notion that he gave adequate scientific consideration to both poles of this discord in his case histories. It is necessary to reformulate his famous assertion about the existence of an inseparable bond between curing and research. A promising new source for regrounding psychoanalytic therapy is for us to take the fact seriously that the theory of repeated traumatization has significance for the structuring of the therapeutic situation. (75 pp.)

The analyst’s contribution toward creating favorable conditions for change is a special object of our interest. It seems obvious that we should choose examples from the initial phase of therapy as it is in this phase that the patient attempts to come to terms with the strange and unsettling situation. The patient’s hopes that analysis will help him become better able to cope with the problems in his life are nourished by the experiences he has in the analytic situation.