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Without ever acquiring a specific [[conceptual]] status, the [[idea]] of change has been the focus of continual questioning since the beginning of psychoanalysis. As pointed out by Daniel Widlöcher (1970), it is easily traced in Sigmund [[Freud]]'s [[work]]. As early as their preliminary [[communication]] of 1893, which served to introduce their Studies on [[Hysteria]] (1895d), Freud and [[Breuer]] established both the modus operandi of the cathartic treatment of hysteria and the idea that the [[mechanism]] of treating the [[symptom]] is the reverse of the mechanism of its [[formation]]. The [[recollection]] of an [[event]] and its [[affective]] charge spark a process that reverses the pathogenic process brought [[about]] by [[repression]]. From that point on and indeed throughout the rest of his work, Freud drew on his observation of [[resistances]] to change to modify, deepen, and refine his [[model]] of change. [[Three]] moments mark the beginnings of psychoanalysis: the [[development]] of the rules of technique, the shift in focus from [[trauma]] [[theory]] to the [[role]] of [[fantasy]], and the introduction of the [[concept]] of change in the [[form]] of [[libidinal]] development. Here we have an indication of the importance of a model of change to psychoanalysis.
Freud's discovery of the extent and importance of the [[transference]] between 1904 and 1910 introduced a new model of change, which is particularly well explained in his Introductory Lectures on [[Psycho]]-[[Analysis]] (1916-1917a [1915-1917]). Transference affects the processes of change in several ways. It is an obstacle used by [[resistance]], and it hinders the processes of [[association]] and [[remembering]] by encouraging [[repetition]] through [[acting out]]. But it is also a lever for therapeutic transformation, because the [[patient]] cathects with the therapist and this reveals features of [[past]] attachments and conflicts. Above all, repetition in [[The Transference|the transference ]] leads the patient to externalize a conflicted intrapsychic [[structure]] and displace it onto the [[relationship]] with the [[analyst]]. This is the origin of the [[tripartite]] therapeutic model of [[clinical]] [[neurosis]], transference neurosis, and [[infantile]] neurosis.
Beginning in the 1920s, growing doubts about the therapeutic effectiveness of psychoanalysis led Freud to make two basic [[theoretical]] revisions. First, he introduced the [[dualism]] of the [[life]] and [[death]] [[instincts]] to account for the force of the [[compulsion]] for repetition as compared with the inertia of libidinal-[[object]] [[choice]]. The second revision was based on a more diversified analysis of the processes of resistance to change, which allowed Freud, in "Inhibitions, Symptoms, and [[Anxiety]]" (1926d [1925]), to differentiate the resistances of [[The Id|the id]], the ego, and the superego—a [[distinction]] made possible by the new [[structural]] model but also strengthened the clinical effectiveness of treatment. On this basis Freud constructed a [[third]] model, which he formulated in a binary manner: "Where id was, there ego shall be," he wrote in "New [[Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis]]" (1933a [1932], p. 80). In "[[Analysis Terminable and Interminable]]" (1937c), Freud offered a more modest version of this formulation, evoking a kind of to-and-fro between ego analysis and id analysis. He was also careful to [[recall]] the bases of resistance to change (libidinal viscosity, the [[repetition compulsion]], and also [[penis]] [[envy]] in [[women]] and [[masculine]] protest in men).
Throughout his work, in fact, Freud emphasized the study of resistances. In "Analysis Terminable and Interminable" (1937c), he emphasized, "Instead of an enquiry into how a cure by analysis comes about (a matter which I [[think]] has been sufficiently elucidated) the question should be asked of what are the obstacles that stand in the way of such a cure" (p. 221).
# [[Freud, Sigmund]]. (1916-1917a [1915-1917]). Introductory lectures on psycho-analysis. SE, 15-16.
# ——. (1926d [1925]). Inhibitions, symptoms, and anxiety. SE, 20: 75-172.
# ——. (1933a [1932]). [[New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis|New introductory lectures on psycho-analysis]]. SE, 22: 1-182.
# ——. (1937c). Analysis terminable and interminable. SE, 23: 209-253.
# ——, & Breuer, Josef. (1893a). On the [[psychical]] mechanism of [[hysterical]] phenomina: Preliminary communication. SE, 2: 1-17.
# Freud, Sigmund, and Breuer, Josef. (1895d). [[Studies on Hysteria|Studies on hysteria]]. SE, 2: 48-106.
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