This thesis presents a discourse-analytic study of audio-recorded psychoanalytic psychotherapy sessions examining the interactions that took place within the therapy. Attention was paid to both micro and macro processes in an attempt to gain an understanding of: 1) how theory is present within the talk of psychoanalytic psychotherapy and 2) how what is said may reflect social and cultural structures and beliefs. The analysis identified four different but interlinked discursive constructions within the therapeutic interaction; clients' discursive constructions of their difficulties, discursive constructions of therapy, talking theory into being, and discursive constructions of power and social context. The function and effects of these constructions were discussed and linked to wider discourses within the analysis. The findings of the analysis were discussed in relation to the literature and implications for research and clinical practice were considered. Finally there was a consideration of the method and reflexivity.