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The [[terms ]] <i>neutrality</i> and <i>benevolent neutrality</i> characterize the counter-[[transference ]] attitude that the psychoanalyst is supposed to adopt throughout the [[psychoanalytic ]] [[treatment]]. Though [[Freud ]] did not use these [[particular ]] terms, he did, however, stress the climate of "[[abstinence]]" in which the treatment should take [[place]]. The introduction of the [[word ]] neutrality is attributed to [[James ]] Strachey, who used it in 1924 to translate the word <i>Indifferenz</i> in Freud's "Observations on Transference [[Love]]."We [[know ]] from the testimonies of [[patients ]] like Smiley Blanton and Joseph Wortis how far Freud himself was from remaining "neutral" in the way he conducted his sessons. On October 26, 1934, he even announced to Wortis that "The psychoanalytic relation is not a chivalrous relation between two equals" (Wortis, 1954). However, though [[Anna Freud ]] did not use use the term either, she nevertheless lent substance to the [[notion ]] of neutrality: When summarizing Freud's description of the [[analyst ]] as "opaque like a [[mirror]]," she defined the analyst's [[position ]] as "at a point that is equidistant from the id, the ego and the [[superego]]" (Freud, 1936/1937). Alex Hoffer later suggested adding "[[external ]] [[reality]]" to that [[list ]] (Hoffer, 1985).Edmund [[Bergler ]] coined the expression <i>benevolent neutrality</i> at the [[Symposium ]] on the [[Theory ]] of the Therapeutic Results of [[Psycho]]-[[Analysis ]] in 1937, and the term met with much success after [[World ]] War II. Most American [[psychoanalysts ]] [[naturally ]] followed his example, but some [[French ]] [[analysts]], like [[Daniel Lagache ]] (1950) and Sacha Nacht (1954), did as well. Nacht stressed that the analyst must not abandon "benevolence" all through the treatment and even introduced the notion of "goodness."Over [[time]], "neutrality" was [[interpreted ]] in two very divergent ways. Some analysts adopted an excessively cold and indifferent, even amoral, attitude to the things that are said in the course of a [[session]]. This spurred Otto Kernberg to [[suggest ]] the term "technical neutrality" in [[order ]] to distinguish between a "[[lack ]] of [[spontaneity ]] and [[natural ]] warmth" and an "authentic concern for the patients [. . .] that protects their [[autonomy]], independence and capacity to accomplish their [[work ]] on their own" (Kernberg, 1976).In opposition to that, particularly after Otto Rank and Sándor Ferenczi stressed the importance of the primary relation with the [[mother ]] and its [[repetition ]] in the transference, as well as the [[idea ]] of comprehensive receptivity that can rightly or wrongly be associated with notions of repairing, of <i>holding</i> and <i>handling</i>, [[other ]] analysts stressed benevolence and adopted increasingly [[maternal ]] and gratifying attitudes in treating difficult patients.Moreover, the [[ideas ]] of authors like Heinz [[Hartmann]], Ernst [[Kris]], and Rudolph [[Loewenstein ]] with [[regard ]] to the latest theory of [[instincts ]] have brought the [[concept ]] of an "aconflictual sector" to the fore, which may account for the special success of the notion of neutrality in [[Anglo-Saxon ]] [[literature]].

# Freud, Anna. (1937). The ego and the mechanisms of [[defence]]. [[London]]: Hogarth. (Original work published 1936)