'The patient is silent' is a frequent phase of resistance in analysis. It may express hatred or love, meaning that two people understand each other well or that understanding is impossible. According to Reik, silence on the part of the analyst appears to the patient in the first phase of analysis as showing the analyst's will to listen, but later as his will not to speak; at other times the meaning to the patient is that the analyst has nothing to say.

The author divides the silence of patients into phallic, anal and ora types.