ABSTRACT
James Strachey (1934) wrote his great paper on the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis at a time when many of Freud’s fundamental ideas had already become established, and Klein’s further research work was emerging.He quotes the passage from Freud’s introductory lecture (published in 1917) where Freud suggests that psychic change
is made possible by the alteration of the ego which is accomplished under the influence of the doctor’s suggestion. By means of the work of interpretation, which transforms what is unconscious into what is conscious, the ego is enlarged at the cost of this unconscious; by means of instruction, it is made conciliatory towards the libido and inclined to grant it some satisfaction, and its repugnance to the claims of the libido is diminished. . . . The more closely events in the treatment coincide with this ideal description, the greater will be the success of the psycho-analytic therapy.
