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On the basis of the case of Dora, the development of an “objectionable” relationship is investigated. The “objectionability” was due to Freud's still incomplete
knowledge of transference/countertransference and the developmental aspects of adolescence, as well as to his attitudes toward femininity and the relationship between the sexes, which were determined by the spirit of the age. Freud did not offer to young Dora the space of development that she needed to be able to acknowledge her femininity and sexuality, with its phallic-expansive ambitions. Instead he broke through the “protective membrane” by denying his and Dora's sense of shame, thereby taking no account of himself or the other. This is because he was led at that time by a therapeutic vision which gave enlightenment absolute priority. Freud showed Dora the way to her inner reality; however, through his depersonalized symbolism, he continued the same expropriation of Dora's existence as a subject that she had experienced in her family and her social environment.