222 CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE 



As the analysis constitutes per se the entire system of 

 psychotherapy introduced by Freud, an adequate account 

 of the psychoanalytic method would entail a full descrip- 

 tion of its technic. The technic of psychoanalysis, how- 

 ever, is too varied to be susceptible of definite formula- 

 tion. Indeed, the technic of psychoanalysis is too inti- 

 mately bound up with the delicate psychologic rapport 

 existing between physician and patient to be separate 

 from it, for each detail of the patient's behavior conveys 

 its own nuance of meaning that is of the utmost import 

 to the psychoanalyst. 



The practical procedure which is followed in the analy- 

 sis of dreams, however, may be broadly indicated. The 

 patient, having repeated his dreams, is asked to relate 

 quite freely whatever occurs to his mind in connection 

 with the different elements of which the dream is com- 

 posed. This method Freud calls that of "free-associa- 

 tion." From the ultimate ideas at which the patient ar- 

 rives at the end of each of the chains of associations 

 leading from the several elements of the manifest dream 

 content, the physician is enabled to reconstruct the under- 

 lying trend contained in the latent content of the dream 

 and so discover the patient's dream thoughts. 



The links in the chains of associations do not succeed 

 each other at regular intervals, but frequently the patient 

 halts, showing signs of discomfort and unwillingness to 

 continue. It is apparent that in such instances the pa- 

 tient's flow of thought is blocked by resistances, that is, 

 he has come on a trend which he has long put away from 

 him as distasteful, as unfit to hold a share in his contem- 

 porary consciousness. At such crises, the patient must 

 be encouraged to continue without fear or reserve. He 

 is reminded that the self-criticism which interposes itself 

 in the current of his spontaneous associations tends to 

 thwart the course of the analysis and to frustrate the 

 whole purpose of the procedure. So when he resumes 

 again the thread of associations, concentrating his atten- 



