Interpretive elements in transference cures are too often given short shrift. I hope to have demonstrated the nature and importance of interpretation in the daringly suggestive technique of 'neglect and counter-stimulation', as exemplified by Freud's treatment of Bruno Walter. I would maintain that the somatic interpretations conveyed by Freud were essential to the successful outcome of the treatment, though at the same time I freely admit that their specific operations, because we are not privy to Walter's inner mental life, must remain unknowable. In general, however, somatic interpretations seem ideally suited to brief psychotherapeutic techniques. It is to be hoped that rigorous psychoanalytic investigation of somatic approaches to symptom resolution will shed light not only on the complexities of somatopsychic interactions, but on fundamental therapeutic principles as well.