Neutrality is an essential part of the analyst's attitude during
treatment,
[Janet Malcolm, ''Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession'' (1988)] developed as part of the non-directive, evenly suspended listening which
Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts i ...
used to complement the patient's
free association in the
talking cure.
[Peter Gay, ''Freud: A Life for our Time'' (1989)]
Early development
In the
Little Hans
Herbert Graf (10 April 1903 – 5 April 1973) was an Austrian-American opera producer. Born in Vienna in 1903, he was the son of Max Graf (1873–1958), and Olga Hönig. His father was an Austrian author, critic, musicologist and member of Si ...
case study of 1909, Freud criticised the boy's father (the prime 'analyst'): "He asks too much and investigates in accord with his own presuppositions instead of letting the little boy express himself".
In 1912 he laid down the mirror rule, that the analyst should not reciprocate the patient's confidences, but only reflect back what they themselves contained.
In 1915 he introduced the term neutrality, warning especially against too great eagerness to cure; and in 1919 he wrote against offering guidance or
counselling
Counseling is the professional guidance of the individual by utilizing psychological methods especially in collecting case history data, using various techniques of the personal interview, and testing interests and aptitudes.
This is a list of co ...
– synthesis as opposed to analysis – as to what form the patient's cure should take.
Freud's guidelines, especially with regard to the bracketing of ethical judgements, and personal disclosures, rapidly became accepted in the psychoanalytic mainstream,
as did the need to respect the patient's speech and not impose preconceptions on it.
Transference
The principle of neutrality took on especial force as regards manifestations of
transference
Transference (german: Übertragung) is a phenomenon within psychotherapy in which the "feelings, attitudes, or desires" a person had about one thing are subconsciously projected onto the here-and-now Other. It usually concerns feelings from a ...
, particularly given the strength of the emotions aroused thereby. Neutrality meant resisting the natural impulse to reciprocate affects, so as to remain in a position to analyse the transference, not respond to it.
Deviations and criticisms
Freud's analytic practice was noticeably less austere than the principles of neutrality he laid down: he would argue with, praise, and lend money to patients,
and even records feeding the
Rat Man
"Rat Man" was the nickname given by Sigmund Freud to a patient whose "case history" was published as ''Bemerkungen über einen Fall von Zwangsneurose'' Notes Upon a Case of Obsessional Neurosis"(1909). This was the second of six case histories ...
on one occasion. However the first theoretical challenge to Freud's concept came from
Sándor Ferenczi
Sándor Ferenczi (7 July 1873 – 22 May 1933) was a Hungarian psychoanalyst, a key theorist of the psychoanalytic school and a close associate of Sigmund Freud.
Biography
Born Sándor Fränkel to Baruch Fränkel and Rosa Eibenschütz, bo ...
, who saw the analyst's attitude of non-disclosure in particular as part of the problem not the solution. Others would subsequently expand on Ferenczi's points,
Nina Coltart for example suspecting the "austere and benevolently neutral manner which we hold as our working ideal" and stressing that "we can do no harm to a patient by showing authentic affect".
[Quoted in Adam Phillips, ''On Flirtation'' (1994) p. 146]
See also
References
{{Reflist, 2}
External links
The Problem of Analytic Neutrality
Psychoanalysis