Word: freuded
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Irresistible Attraction." Long after Breuer, discouraged by criticism, had left the partnership, Freud continued his attempts to find a more efficient method of mining buried thoughts. One day an alert patient, when asked if he could remember his recent experiences under hypnosis, repeated everything that had been said to him, everything that he himself had said...
This was a crucial discovery. Freud finally abandoned hypnosis, merely invited his patients to lie on a couch in his shaded office and talk of whatever entered their minds. This "free association," Freud soon discovered, was not free at all. For his patients, at first reluctantly mumbling trivialities, gradually wandered back into the past, on to forgotten paths, stumbling painfully over hidden, moss-covered memories, dabbling in streams of old affection. Through sharp observation and almost poetic analysis, Freud was able to interpret the mass of material his patients dredged up, and explain the origin of their symptoms...
...patients were "suggestible," why they accepted his explanations, overcame their resistance, strove to know themselves and conquer their symptoms, was at that time a problem to Freud. One day, during her treatment, a woman patient suddenly threw her arms around his neck...
...unexpected entrance of a servant relieved us from a painful discussion," wrote Freud. "I was modest enough not to attribute the event to my irresistible personal attraction." This emotional "transference," which appeared as passionate, sensual love or fierce hatred, arose in every analysis, accounted for the powerful influence of an analyst over his patients. "[It is] the best instrument of the analytic treatment," Freud wrote...
...resolved by convincing the patient that he is re-experiencing emotional relations which had their origin [in early childhood]." Thus Freud gained, in his patients' minds, the authority of a dearly loved (or violently hated) father, or mother...