ABSTRACT
How does analysis effect change? This question is perhaps the oldest and most persistent methodological issue in the analytic tradition. Given its persistence, and the variety of proposed answers, one wonders whether it is worthwhile attempting once more to address the issue. This concern notwithstanding, I hope, in this paper to identify certain specific features of the analytic process that may allow us to probe the question of change more deeply. In order to do this I will begin by linking two clinically oriented papers which, I believe, share an organizing feature that opens the possibility of a deeper appreciation of the analytic process. The feature in question is the time horizon of the analytic process; one might say the temporality of analysis. I will then link this feature to a way of thinking about phenomena in general—specifically the dynamics of complex systems, with the organizing concepts of emergence and fractal structure—that I hope will open up a space for reflection on the analytic process that has only begun to be explored in both psychoanalysis and analytical psychology. I will then conclude with some reflections on the nature of the analytic process and developments in our understanding of the process of 294change that we will have to consider as we move ahead in our development of theory and practice.
