ABSTRACT
This chapter is intended as a summary statement of Sigmund Freud's positions on technique. It discusses to what extent various analysts have continued Freud's method of treating patients and forms a view of Freud's technique as he stated it in his publications. The concept of the transference neurosis indicates that the patient is repeating core or central conflicts in the treatment situation. This idea of central conflicts goes back to Freud's onion skin metaphor in the psychotherapy chapter of Studies on Hysteria. Freud's criteria for termination are by and large less ambitious than the criteria stated by today's analysts. Freud did not believe one could analyze everything that was potentially an issue for the patient unless there was something current in the patient's life that was stimulating a given conflict. One way of interpreting Freud's reactions is that he saw patients as either narcissistic or actual neurotics when he was unable to sense a positive transference reaction to himself.
