ABSTRACT
Words are the only means of power which Sigmund Freud allowed in the carefully isolated social space of the analytic consulting room. Freud stressed the role of the analyst's words as vehicles of influence in the face-to-face politics of the consulting room because it is not the patient's ignorance which is at the root of neurosis, but the forces of repression and resistance. Rather than to impel or prevent words or actions, psychoanalytic interpretations aim to undermine some of them in order to facilitate others. Psychoanalytic interpretations seek to provide knowledge which is related to the patient's experience in the analytic relationship, in order to facilitate the initiation or resumption of a process of self-development that previously has been ruled out by a neurotic conflict. Freud's own detailed case studies reveal that he never quite practised what he preached about therapy and that he was far from being a successful practitioner of the art which he had invented.
