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MOST ANALYSTS WOULD AGREE THAT interpretive statements in themselves are not sufficient to promote the analytic process. The content of an interpretation is meaningful to the analysand only in the context of the relationship that he/she has established with the analyst. It is therefore necessary to provide the conditions that will enhance the analysand's potential for engaging in the analytic work. Freud indicates in "On beginning the treatment" (1912) that it is essential to establish a proper "rapport" with the analysand before "disclosing to him the hidden meaning of the idea that occurs to him" (139). Freud argues:
To ensure this, nothing need be done but to give him time. If one exhibits a serious interest in him, carefully clears away the resistances that crop up in the beginning and avoids making certain mistakes, he will of himself form such an attachment and link the doctor up with one of the imago of the past by whom he was accustomed to be treated with affection [pp. 139–140].
Freud claims that this rapport would be jeopardized if the analyst takes a "moralizing" attitude or if "he behaves like a representative or advocate of some contending party" (140).
While the analyst's non-judgmental attitude presumably enhances the analysand's sense of safety in the analytic situation, it is not sufficient to promote the analysand's willingness to engage actively in the process. It is essential for the analyst to promote the analysand's active participation in ascertaining "the hidden meaning of the idea that occurs to him." It should be noted that the analyst's efforts to "disclose" this meaning occur over a considerable period of time. In the beginning of this period, these efforts serve the purpose of delineating for the analysand the general type of work which the analyst considers is in the analysand's best