ABSTRACT
By 1926, Sigmund Freud's cancer had forced him to make no less than forty-eight visits to his surgeon, Dr. Pichler; he had undergone a biopsy, two cauterisations, and endless attempts at adjusting his prosthesis to the state of his jaw. Freud's reason for arguing in favour of a laissez-faire policy is rooted in principles he had long held and defended. Freud starts by admonishing doctors who assume the title of psychoanalyst in order to practise analysis without the necessary skills. Doctors are the ones who, more than anyone else, were fighting against psychoanalysis, and they continue to do so. In the United States, they are the ones who most strongly oppose the practice of analysis by lay practitioners. In 1927 Freud added a Postscript to The Question of Lay Analysis, expressing the hope that his fellow analysts understood that psychoanalysis represents a novel situation that cannot be judged based on traditional usage.
