a-general-introduction-to-psychoanalysis-sigmund-freud

the same interval in time between the treatment and these suppressions
favoring a solution of the conflict; yet in spite of these conditions, we are not
able to overcome the resistance, or to remove the suppression. These
patients, suffering from paranoia, melancholia, and dementia praecox, remain
untouched on the whole, and proof against psychoanalytic therapy. What is
the reason for this? It is not lack of intelligence; we require, of course, a
certain amount of intellectual ability in our patients; but those suffering from
paranoia, for instance, who effect such subtle combinations of facts, certainly
are not in want of it. Nor can we say that other motive forces are lacking.
Patients suffering from melancholia, in contrast to those afflicted with
paranoia, are profoundly conscious of being ill, of suffering greatly, but they
are not more accessible. Here we are confronted with a fact we do not
understand, which bids us doubt if we have really understood all the
conditions of success in other neuroses.
In the further consideration of our dealings with hysterical and compulsion
neurotics we soon meet with a second fact, for which we were not at all
prepared. After a while we notice that these patients behave toward us in a
very peculiar way. We thought that we had accounted for all the motive
forces that could come into play, that we had rationalized the relation
between the patient and ourselves until it could be as readily surveyed as an
example in arithmetic, and yet some force begins to make itself felt that we
had not considered in our calculations. This unexpected something is highly
variable. I shall first describe those of its manifestations which occur
frequently and are easy to understand.
We see our patient, who should be occupying himself only with finding a way
out of his painful conflicts, become especially interested in the person of the
physician. Everything connected with this person is more important to him
than his own affairs and diverts him from his illness. Dealings with him are
very pleasant for the time being. He is especially cordial, seeks to show his
gratitude wherever he can, and manifests refinements and merits of character
that we hardly had expected to find. The physician forms a very favorable
opinion of the patient and praises the happy chance that permitted him to
render assistance to so admirable a personality. If the physician has the
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