CHAPTER XII.
The Future Chances of Psychoanalytic Therapy.[1]
As the main object of this assemblage is for practical purposes, I will therefore take as my opening address a practical theme which will appeal not so much to your scientific as to your medical interest. I am indeed mindful of your judgment of the success of our therapy and I also take for granted that most of you have passed through the two initiative phases, to wit, the enthusiasm over the unexpected progress of our therapeutic accomplishment, and the depression over the enormous difficulties which stand in the way of our efforts. However, it really does not matter in what stage of this development some of you may be, I shall show today that we are by no means at the end of our therapeutic resources for combating the neuroses and that we have a right to expect a considerable improvement in our therapeutic chances in the future.
I believe that the reinforcement will come from three sides:
- Through inner progress.
- Through a gain in authority.
- Through the general effect of our work.
By inner progress I understand the progress (a) in our analytic knowledge, (b) the progress in our technique.
(a) The progress in our knowledge : To be sure, we do not yet know everything that we need for the understanding of our patients' unconsciousness. It is therefore clear that any progress in our knowledge means additional strength for our therapy. As long as we did not understand anything we did not accomplish anything; and the more we shall learn to understand the more we shall accomplish. In the beginning, the psychoanalytic treatment was inexorable and inexhaustible. The patient had to tell everything himself, and the activity of the physician consisted in constantly urging him to continue. Today things look brighter. The treatment consists of two parts, of that which the physician dis-
- ↑ Lecture delivered before the second Psychoanalytic Congress at Nürnberg in 1910.
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