ABSTRACT
Every analyst knows that an analysis proceeds the more quickly and efficiently the more the patient “co-operates.” When speaking of co-operation I have not in mind the patient’s polite and obliging acceptance of whatever the analyst suggests. Nor am I referring primarily to the patient’s conscious willingness to give information about himself; most patients who come to analysis of their own accord sooner or later recognize and accept the necessity of expressing themselves with utmost sincerity. I am rather referring to a kind of self-expression which is as little at the patient’s conscious command as it is at the composer’s command to express his feelings in music. If factors within himself bar him from expression, the composer is flatly unable to work; he is unproductive. 14Similarly, a patient, despite his best intentions to be cooperative, becomes unproductive as soon as his efforts meet some “resistance.” But the more frequent the periods in which he is able to express himself freely, the more he can tackle his own problems and the more significant is the common work of patient and analyst.
