DescriptionThis theoretical study explores the evolution of psychoanalytic technique from Freud to the contemporary Freudian school, through the lens of implicit and explicit recommendations about the optimal state of the analyst’s mind at work, in particular the use of the analyst’s subjective experience. Freud’s writing on this topic presented paradoxical ideas about the analyst’s state of mind that were dealt with differently by different thinkers within the classical Freudian tradition in North American psychoanalysis. The author focuses on the differences between Hartmann and Loewald’s thinking about psychoanalytic interaction and technique, particularly their different conceptions of reality and development. The contemporary Freudian school is then discussed in the context of Loewald’s thought. The contemporary Freudian school has integrated Loewaldian, theoretical ideas into explicit, clinical writing about technique, and can be seen as both a continuation of the Freudian tradition and an important intellectual force in contemporary psychoanalysis.