Chapter V. Dissensions

This is a painful and difficult topic to expound; painful because of the distress the dissensions caused at the time and of the unpleasant consequences that lasted for many years after; difficult because it is hard to convey their inner meaning to the outside world and because the personal motives of the dissidents cannot even yet be fully exposed. The outside world quite rightly attempts to judge the differences between Freud's theories and those of his followers who separated from him on the objective merits of the respective theories, though it does not always succeed in this laudable endeavour. In the nature of things, however, it is bound to overlook, or underestimate, an essential element in the situation.

Investigation of the unconscious, which is a fair definition of psycho-analysis, can be carried out only by overcoming the ‘resistances’ which ample experience has shown are displayed against such a procedure. In fact, as Freud has remarked,1 psycho-analysis consists in an examination of these resistances and of the ‘transferences’ that accompany them, and of little else. When the resistances have been overcome the subject has insight into aspects of his personality to which he had previously been blind.

Now it might be supposed that this is an act that is accomplished once and for all, and this was Freud's first expectation. It was disappointing to find it is not so. The forces in the mind are not static but dynamic. They can vary and shift in unexpected fashion. Thus it may come about that the insight at first gained is not necessarily permanent and may once more be lost; it proved to have been only partial insight. Only when the manifold resistances have been thoroughly worked through is the insight of a lasting nature.

All this is equally true for the analyst as for the patient, since for him a clear and permanent insight is even more important. This consideration is sometimes overlooked by the public, who