The Synthesis of Self

A psychoanalyst, through training and experience, directs the en tire focus of his attention to registering and internalizing the in put of a patient's communications, listening intently for their implied meanings. It is only by umaveling the mysteries of an un conscious realm of mental activity that it becomes possible to fully comprehend the way in which mental productions are finally ob servable. The psychoanalyst's total personality is the listening in strument, and the messages emanating from this hidden sector most clearly heard, deciphered, and understood are those most resonant with the contents of the psychoanalyst's unconscious. It is probable that a variety of psychoanalysts adopting a listening posture with a given patient would hear and understand a mul tiplicity of different meanings. Over the years, sensitive, well trained psychoanalytic investigators have formulated concepts con cerning mental functioning from disparate and often opposing points of view. These contradictory ideas are offered from a ba sic theoretical foundation placing unconscious mental events as the most important force shaping human experience. Divergent opin ions may at times appear irreconcilable and then serve as the grounds for developing a separate psychoanalytic school of thought. It is not surprising that an exploration of unseen powerful and regressive forces, by a group of scientists with unique in dividual experiences, would yield insights sensitively attuned to a wide variety of important factors determining human develop ment and behavior.