Prescription or Description: The Therapeutic Action of Psychoanalysis

Abstract

The concept of psychoanalytic paradigms bears directly on the problem of prescription and description. Psychoanalytic technique, however, is often presented in the imperative mode, as an injunction, a prescription. Arguments over prescription, and the resultant neglect of description led to a neglect of investigation of relevant lines of convergence among theories as well as of explication of genuine differences, a fact which is especially important when discussing interpersonal and object relations approaches. It follows from a descriptive perspective that theories which look at personality development similarly necessarily are more alike than different in their understanding of the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis. A theory of object relations is necessarily an aspect of every psychoanalytic theory. Theories within a given paradigm approach the question of the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis similarly to other theories with the same paradigm, and quite differently than theories within the opposing paradigm.