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[[Working]]-through is the [[name ]] for an operation resulting from the putting into effect of several [[processes ]] during [[treatment]]; it opposes the [[work ]] of [[resistance ]] by making the [[analysand ]] better aware, through [[time]], of the defensive mechanisms upon which resistance is based, and it sparks "processes of remodeling the ego" (1937c, p. 249). [[Freud ]] accords it a primary [[place ]] in the analyzand's [[domain]], to the extent the [[analyst ]] allows him the time to accomplish it. At the same time however, this [[activity ]] also seems closely tied to [[interpretation]], and the interpretive modalities of the analyst. It is a term that may only be surmised in relation to [[economic ]] principles, including those of resistance and elements of timing such as duration and "tempo."

The [[German ]] term durcharbeiten is difficult to translate. Although the [[English ]] [[translation ]] "[[working-through]]" does successfully convey its [[dynamic ]] aspect, it fails to [[capture ]] the aspect of work that occurs at the surface. In the technical paper "[[Remembering]], [[Repeating ]] and Working-Through (Further recommendations on the [[Technique ]] of [[Psycho]]-[[Analysis ]] II)" (1914g), where Freud uses the term for the [[first time]], it was to describe a "consistent technique used today" that prevails over [[hypnosis ]] because it gives up on privileging the interrogation of the [[patient ]] concerning a specific problem or factor. It is a technique, writes Freud, used to study "whatever is [[present ]] for the time [[being ]] on the surface of the patient's [[mind]]" (p. 147)—though this does not prevent him from deploying metaphors of in-depth work in the same article. The term durcharbeiten thus conveys two notions whose co-[[existence ]] in a single [[word ]] is difficult to maintain: depth and surface.

[[Psychoanalytic ]] technique came after that of hypnosis, and Freud sometimes placed the two in opposition in [[order ]] to highlight ways in which [[Psychoanalysis ]] represents a departure. Working-through comes out of a fundamental [[difference ]] between the two techniques in that it assumes a gradual, step-by-step approach to resistance. Hypnosis circumvents the [[notion ]] of resistance; it allows [[repressed ]] [[memories ]] to emerge but in no way involves "processes of remodeling the ego" and [[repression ]] in its [[dimension ]] as a part of processes of [[symbolization]]. The [[idea ]] of resistance is necessary given the economic aspects of the [[drives]], notably with [[regard ]] to excesses of [[drive ]] [[energy]]. But as Freud continually pointed out, the ego [[defends ]] itself against dangers that are no longer current. Thus "to work through" implies the idea of a [[repetition ]] that garners small quantities of energy to deal with the [[compulsion ]] to [[repeat ]] emanating from the id. Working-through is proposed answer to resistance in "[[Remembering, Repeating and Working-Through]]."

That the [[form ]] of resistance forwarded at the time is repression, attests to the fact that Freud conceived the [[psychic ]] [[apparatus ]] as highly-advanced in the realm of symbolization—flexible and effective in its ability to confront the drives. But the effectiveness of the function of working-through must be relativized in the face of difficulties involving defusions of [[instinct]], [[narcissistic ]] fragility, and deficiencies in symbolization. Although it remains [[true ]] in these instances that certain forms of resistance must be recognized, [[interpreted]], and then given up when they no longer further the ends of [[self]]-preservation; more [[recent ]] [[analytic ]] technique has ways of handling the [[transference ]] and a conception of the framework for treatment which are based on metapsychological representations that are more [[complex ]] than in 1914. Thus working-through is no longer indicated at certain [[times ]] during treatment; and sometimes a poor [[understanding ]] of [[negative ]] elements in the transference may lead the analysis into a working-through that is [[intellectual ]] and falsely effective.

Although Freud did not explicitly come back to this notion after 1920, it is useful to reconsider it while taking into account the upheavals brought [[about ]] by the [[dual ]] [[theory ]] of the [[instincts ]] and the negative currents it entails. Although he did not use the term durcharbeiten, Freud reworks the idea of it in "[[Negation]]" (1925h), when confronted with the negative element that subtends a patient's [[denial ]] of the analyst's interpretation. It would be necessary to wait until "[[Analysis Terminable and Interminable]]" (1937c) for him to explore how the joint efforts of the analyst and patient to recognize and conquer resistance run aground upon the negative factor of the "bedrock" of [[castration]].

In theory, the more working-through can relate representational [[content ]] to its corresponding [[affect]], the more effective it is. We [[know ]] that most of the defensive forms resistance takes, whether [[splitting]], repression or negation, seek to [[divorce ]] affect from [[representation ]] and leave [[them ]] strangers to one [[another]]. Certain defensive [[formations]], notably those that combine splitting and negation, make working-through laborious, and its [[visible ]] effects appear only in the long term. The forms then assumed by these psychic [[contents]], ruled by [[resistances ]] which stem from the instability of drive fusion, are [[subject ]] to the [[repetition compulsion ]] and are difficult to access by means of working-through, unless the analyst pays special attention to the psychoanalytic setting and to the analysis of his or her [[counter-transference]].

In "Remembering, Repeating and Working-Through," Freud optimistically stated that symptomatic repetition compulsion could be rendered "harmless," or even "useful," if the analyst could bring it into the "transference as a playground in which it [the repetition compulsion] is allowed to expand in almost [[complete ]] [[freedom ]] and in which it is expected to display to us everything in the way of pathogenic instincts that is hidden in the patient's mind" (1914g, p. 154), where everything is accessible to the analyst's [[interpretations]]. He cited the example of an analysis that seemed to be stuck in one place but that was actually evolving normally. What must be remembered, he then wrote, is "that giving the resistance a name could not result in its immediate cessation. One must allow the patient time to become more conversant with this resistance with which he has now become acquainted, to work through it, to overcome it, by continuing, in defiance of it, the analytic work according to the [[fundamental rule ]] of analysis" (p. 155).

Working-though is indeed linked to the notion of time, of duration, as is pointed out again at the end of the essay: "The working-through of the resistances may in [[practice ]] turn out to be an arduous task for the subject of the analysis and a trial of patience for the analyst" (p. 155). The theme of the length of the analysis was much more [[explicit]], if only because of its title, in the 1937 essay "Analysis Terminable and Interminable." The justification for prolonging the length of the analytic [[cure ]] is considered relative to the "acquired . . . alterations of the ego" (1937c, p. 235) in its defensive [[struggle ]] with the drives. These modifications of the ego seem like fixations, and the analyst's task is to promote the "processes of remodeling the ego" in the patient. Moreover, it is this aspect of the work of analysis that, from the analyst's viewpoint, supports the idea that "to analyze" is "an interminable task" (p. 249).

In "An [[Outline ]] of Psycho-Analysis" (1940a [1938]), Freud put the finishing touches on his metapsychological [[overview]]. The [[mental ]] apparatus with its two topographies, his two theories of the drives, and his theories on [[anxiety ]] constitute a complex [[whole]], in light of which [[thinking ]] about analytic technique must remain cautious.

The notion of working-through retains its [[full ]] importance, provided it is conceived in relation to the notion of drive fusion and defusion and the consequences thereof, as well as in relation to the analyst's interpretation, whether it is explicit or [[latent]], as Jean-[[Paul ]] Valabrega proposed in La [[formation ]] du [[psychanalyste ]] (The [[training ]] of the [[psychoanalyst]]; 1994).

See also: [[Conscious ]] processes; Fundamental rule; Lifting of amnesia; Memories; [[Memory]]; [[Psychoanalytic treatment]]; "Remembering, Repeating and Working-through"; Resistance; Transference [[neurosis]]; Work (as a [[Psychoanalytical ]] Notion).[[Bibliography]]