title: Potentiality shrouded: how the newer theories work.
abstract: An analyst often needs to feel that the integration he anticipates and provokes was already observed, fully present, in the patient. He can feel that way by cultivating an empathic sense that the patient's aspects and movements are inevitable and not chosen. A full theory of the mind, however, describes other possibilities. For that reason, it is sometimes useful to work with incomplete theories that omit descriptions of potentiality. These holistic revisions of psychoanalysis increase the variety of passively perceived treatment-relevant configurations and lessen the analyst's descriptive authority.
mesh_terms: D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D004532:Ego; D004645:Empathy; D006801:Humans; D010465:Perception; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy