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Not only as a simple homage to our hosts have I chosen an Italian title for my discussion, but also because it historically brings out a central issue of psychoanalysis which I would like to address.
In utilizing Leonardo da Vinci's metaphor by which the latter contrasted the essence of two forms of art, that of painting and that of sculpture, Freud in 1905 clearly wanted to characterize psychoanalytical therapy as a process that functions essentially per via di levare, that is, by taking away, by removing. The analogy here is to the art of sculpturing where by carving and chiselling, that is, per via di levare, the artisan gradually extracts his work of art out of the raw stone block in which, and by which, it is contained.
In contrast, other psychotherapies which function by means of suggestion and other directive techniques, operate per via di porre, that is, by putting on, such as in painting where the artist applies color pigments unto a blank canvas in order to produce his work of art.
Regarding psychoanalysis, Freud summons us to abandon suggestion and other directive techniques, that is, to give up operating per via di porre, because these do not produce lasting therapeutic results and do not pay due tribute to resistance that results from the unconscious, inner conflicts of our patients.
Instead he invites us to accompany and comprehend our patient's inner, repressed, unconscious conflicts and struggles and the manner in which these are condensed and converted into symptoms and psychopathology.
Leaving the metaphors behind, Freud's clear intention here is to delimit and circumscribe the field and scope of psychoanalytical therapy. Its domain, its proper field of competence and operation is our patient's intra-subjective psychic reality and structure. Not that in Freud's opinion our patient's inter-subjective reality and its relationship to external, social reality would be of no importance; it is undoubtedly as important as his inner world. However, as far as ps