[4] He went on to co-author, with Jacob Arlow, Psychoanalytic Concepts and the Structural Theory, which, initially controversial, would become a standard advanced text.
[6] While Brenner favored a cool, aseptic analytic technique, and opposed the idea that the transference could be separated off from the so-called working alliance,[7] he also challenged the mechanical use of the analysis of defences without consideration of the instinctual impulses involved.
[9] His technique epitomised what Malcolm called “taking respect for individual experience and generosity of spirit toward human frailty very far indeed'”.
[10] Brenner has been notable for his readiness to challenge psychoanalytic dogmas,[11] - something perhaps most apparent with his late revision of Freud's structural theory, culminating in his article "Conflict, Compromise Formation, and Structural Theory"(2002) which he himself considered “the most useful and valuable contribution I have been able to make to the field of psychoanalysis”.
[12] His late development of conflict theory went back to Freud's early concept of 'compromise formation', as well as drawing on Arlow's idea of 'fantasy function' in a mixture of conservatism and innovation.