ABSTRACT
Theoretically the aim of all psycho-analytical therapy was defined by Freud—for all time to come, as we thought then—in his three famous synonymous formulae: 'overcoming the patient's resistance', 'removal of infantile amnesia', and 'making the unconscious conscious'. The aim of therapy was, as reformulated by Freud: 'Where id was, ego shall be'. In practice this meant a new, an additional task: to help the patient to repair the faulty places in his ego structure, and in particular to aid him to abandon some of his costly defensive mechanisms and to develop less costly ones. The relative importance of the two approaches dominated all theoretical discussions on therapy and technique in the following years that include dynamic approach and topic approach. The author thinks that the cause of the queer and embarrassing situation is the same limitation that compelled Freud not to go beyond the individual when formulating the aims of psycho-analytic therapy.
