In psychoanalysis the patient experiences a kind of drama and presently this drama seems to become more important to him than talking about his troubles. Thanks to Freud's genius and patience, he found a way of making this apparent obstacle the chief therapeutic instrument of psychoanalysis. According to Thompson, knowledge concerning the part played by transference in therapy and in relationships between people in general has greatly increased since Freud's first formulations. Whereas in most forms of therapy the transference attitudes are utilized to augment the authority of the doctor, in psychoanalysis and in some types of brief psychotherapy the transference is studied and interpreted in order to gain insight into the characteristic dynamics of the personality.