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

opportunity of speaking to the relatives of the patient he hears with pleasure
that this esteem is returned. At home the patient never tires of praising the
physician, of prizing advantages which he constantly discovers. "He adores
you, he trusts you blindly, everything you say is a revelation to him," the
relatives say. Here and there one of the chorus observes more keenly and
remarks, "It is a positive bore to hear him talk, he speaks only of you; you are
his only subject of conversation."
Let us hope that the physician is modest enough to ascribe the patient's
estimation of his personality to the encouragement that has been offered him
and to the widening of his intellectual horizon through the astounding and
liberating revelations which the cure entails. Under these conditions analysis
progressed splendidly. The patient understands every suggestion, he
concentrates on the problems that the treatment requires him to solve,
reminiscences and ideas flood his mind. The physician is surprised by the
certainty and depth of these interpretations and notices with satisfaction how
willingly the sick man receives the new psychological facts which are so hotly
contested by the healthy persons in the world outside. An objective
improvement in the condition of the patient, universally admitted, goes hand
in hand with this harmonious relation of the physician to the patient under
analysis.
But we cannot always expect to have fair weather. There comes a day when
the storm breaks. Difficulties turn up in the treatment. The patient asserts
that he can think of nothing more. We are under the impression that he is no
longer interested in the work, that he lightly passes over the injunction that,
heedless of any critical impulse, he must say everything that comes to his
mind. He behaves as though he were not under treatment, as though he had
closed no agreement with the physician; he is clearly obsessed by something
he does not wish to divulge. This is a situation which endangers the success
of the treatment. We are distinctly confronted with a tremendous resistance.
What can have happened?
Provided we are able once more to clarify the situation, we recognize the
cause of the disturbance to have been intense affectionate emotions, which
the patient has transferred to the physician. This is certainly not justified
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