On Learning to Inquire: Revisiting the Detailed Inquiry

This paper describes the author's experience of initial disorientation when encountering for the first time in supervision an interpersonal analytic approach with an emphasis on active questioning of the patient through the use of a detailed inquiry. This initial disorientation is linked to a predominant trend in psychoanalysis that generally opposes the use of questions as a significant means of analytic interaction. In contrast, Interpersonal approaches that make free use of inquiry are discussed in light of the author's clinical experience that learning to inquire contributed to a more finely tuned awareness of the analytic process.