ABSTRACT
Freud was interested in the other forms of neuroses that his patients presented, which could not be treated so easily by uncovering "primitive scenes". It was sexuality in general, past and present, that was now incriminated; only later on, in the psychoanalytic era, was infantile sexuality to be designated in particular. Drawing on his clinical observations and his aetiological hypotheses, Freud, for his part, continued over the next few years to examine in greater depth the notions of actual neurosis and psychoneurosis of defence, and he isolated the "anxiety neurosis" from neurasthenia. There is reason to think that Freud may have felt that he was regarded as one of those who privileged psychoanalytic research to the detriment of its therapeutic aspects, for he was increasingly attracted by theoretical questions that pointed him towards the paths of philosophical or sociological speculation he had frequented in his pre-laboratory days.
