QUESTIONS about the "essence" or boundary of a subject matter are both useful and hazardous. These concerns can coalesce or divide, divert or focus, affirm or degrade. With the hazards in mind, I wish to identify the forms of activity specific to psychoanalysis and psychoanalysts apart from other disciplines and practitioners. Given the variety of practices and the competing and complimentary theories, psychoanalysts have grown uncertain and defensive about the special domain of their inquiry. What makes something psychoanalytic?