Suggestion and psychoanalytic technique

The role of the analyst's suggestive influence on the course and outcome of psychoanalytic treatment is explored, and traditional and newer perspectives on analytic technique are contrasted. The intersubjective critique of the neutral, objective analyst in relation to suggestion is examined. The inevitable presence and need for suggestive factors in analysis, and the relationship of suggestion to transference susceptibility, are emphasized. The manner in which the analysis of suggestive factors is subsumed in transference analysis as part of traditional technique is highlighted.