Theodor Reik was central to the struggle for the legitimization of nonmedical or lay analysis both in Europe and the United States. This paper deals with the book Freud wrote in defense of Reik, The Question of Lay Analysis, and places it within its historical context. It then discusses the resistance to lay analysis by the New York Psychoanalytic Society and speculates on some of the reasons for this opposition. Finally, it discusses the state of nonmedical analysis today and a perspective for the future.