ABSTRACT
In the hypnotic technique of the preanalytic period the role of the ego was still entirely negative. The purpose of the hypnotist was to arrive at the contents of the unconscious and he regarded the ego merely as a disturbing factor in his work. The greatest triumph of hypnotic technique—the complete elimination of the ego during the period of investigation—proved prejudicial to permanent results and disillusionment as to the value of the technique set in. Even in free association—the method which has since replaced hypnosis as an aid to research—the role of the ego is at first still a negative one. The dreamer’s psychic state differs little from that of the patient during the analytic hour. Even today many beginners in analysis have an idea that it is essential to succeed in inducing their patients really and invariably to give all their associations without modification or inhibition, that is, to obey implicitly the fundamental rule of analysis.
