Memory reconsolidation, emotional arousal and the process of change in psychoanalysis

This chapter argues in favor of an interdisciplinary dialogue between psychoanalysis and related disciplines, especially psychotherapy process research. Psychoanalysis needs to broaden interdisciplinary dialogue as in a "two-way street," within the framework of a conception of epistemological pluralism for the building of psychoanalytic theory. In 100 years of clinical research and 40 years of empirical research, the concept of psychoanalytic process continues to elude a consensual definition, probably because the problem and methodology is not well defined. This chapter advances a scientific, innovative, and clinically sensitive research program for the study of psychoanalytic process that centers on the dyadic and interactional nature of the analytical work, and on the relationship between the implicit (unconscious) and the explicit (conscious) levels of the analytic endeavor. The authors propose that this research program be articulated around three methodological approaches: (1) the use of systematic case studies; (2) the adoption of the events paradigm in order to access the salient phenomena of the psychoanalytic process, and (3) a micro-analytic approach to the specific phenomena occurring within relevant sequences of interaction.