ABSTRACT

Assumption of hostility depended less on the matter of his communication than on the manner and particularly on the peculiarities stressed. Once the assumption of hostility was made it became possible to see the analytic significance of the matter he was communicating. The problem depends for its solution on observation of the patient’s behaviour over a relatively short period and contrasts with the problem of hostility spread out over a long period and expressed in episodes of short duration. The personality of the analyst is recognized as a feature of the analytic situation but he may not attach enough importance to the strength and weakness of aspects of his personality that are relatively unrelated to psychopathology and have to be learned from experiences other than those of his own analysis. The psycho-analyst tries to help the patient to transform that part of an emotional experience of which he is unconscious into an emotional experience of which he is conscious.