A General Introduction to PsychoanalysisFreud, Sigmund
Science
A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis
Freud, Sigmund
Psychoanalysis
doubts are raised are invariably the ones to yield the material which
leads to the uncovering of the unconscious.
The first reaction we call out by laying down this basic technical rule
is that the patient directs his entire resistance against it. The
patient tries in every way to escape its requirements. First he will
declare that he cannot think of anything, then, that so much comes to
his mind that it is impossible to seize on anything definite. Then we
discover with no slight displeasure that he has yielded to this or that
critical objection, for he betrays himself by the long pauses which he
allows to occur in his speaking. He then confesses that he really cannot
bring himself to this, that he is ashamed to; he prefers to let this
motive get the upper hand over his promise. He may say that he did think
of something but that it concerns someone else and is for that reason
exempt. Or he says that what he just thought of is really too trivial,
too stupid and too foolish. I surely could not have meant that he should
take such thoughts into account. Thus it goes on, with untold
variations, in the face of which we continually reiterate that "telling
everything" really means telling everything.
One can scarcely find a patient who does not make the attempt to reserve
some province for himself against the intrusion of the analysis. One
patient, whom I must reckon among the most highly intelligent, thus
concealed an intimate love relation for weeks; and when he was asked to
explain this infringement of our inviolable rule, he defended his action
with the argument that he considered this one thing was his private
affair. Naturally, analytic treatment cannot countenance such right of
sanctuary. One might as well try in a city like Vienna to allow an
exception to be made of great public squares like the Hohe Markt or the
Stephans Platz and say that no one should be arrested in those
places--and then attempt to round up some particular wrong-doer. He will
be found nowhere but in those sanctuaries. I once brought myself around
to permit such an exception in the case of a man on whose capacity for
work a great deal depended, and who was bound by his oath of service,
which forbade him to tell anyone of certain things. To be sure, he was
satisfied with the results--but not I; I resolved never to repeat such
an attempt under these conditions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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