technique

While technique refers to the application of the rules of an art to its object, its meaning has undergone a subtle but important change. The technical has been applied to the rules referring to the mechanical, to that which is not alive, while the proper word for dealing with that which is alive is „art.“ For this reason the concept psychoanalytic „technique“ suffers from a defect because it seems to refer to a non-alive object and hence not applicable to man. ― (1991d [1974]: Therapeutic Aspects of Psychoanalysis, in: E. Fromm, The Art of Listening, New York (The Continuum Publishing Corporation) 1994, p. 192.)