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 oedipal situation involves much more than an instinctual at titude toward a prohibited object giving expression to unconscious wishes. It introduces a whole new way of perceiving the internal and external world and an entirely different orientation to the myriad of life's experiences. A great deal of structural develop ment, requiring the negotiation of a sequence of early developmen tal tasks, has to have taken place before it is possible to encompass the complex demands of an oedipal attitude. When these early steps are not negotiated, although genital instinctual impulses may be...