It is applicable in cases of chronic psychoneurosis which exhibit no
difficult or dangerous phenomena. Among these are counted all sorts of
compulsive neuroses, compulsive thoughts, compulsive behavior and cases of
hysteria, where phobias and obsessions play a chief role, also somatic
phenomena of hysteria which do not need to be acted upon quickly, such as,
for example, anorexia. In acute cases of hysteria it is better to wait for
a calmer period before applying psychoanalysis. In cases of nervous
prostration this manner of treatment, which demands the serious co-operation
and attention of the patient, which lasts a long time and at first takes no
notice of the continuance of the phenomena, is difficult. This form of
psychotherapy places great demands on the physician's patience and
understanding. Psychoanalyses which last more than a year, are no rarity. It
cannot be applied to the seriously degenerated; to people who have passed
far beyond middle life, because among the last named the accumulated
material compasses too much; to those who are entangled in a state of great
fear and who live in deep depression. Analysis can be applied to the
neuroses of children. It is desirable in those cases for the physician to
be supported by a trusted person, as for example a woman assistant, but
preferably by parents enlightened sufficiently to observe the spontaneous
remarks of the child, to make notes of them, and communicate them to the
physician. According to the experiments undertaken by the Zurich school, the
expectation is justified within certain limits, that psychoanalysis will be
therapeutically useful in certain forms of paranoia and dementia praecox.

I think that it will soon be said of psychoanalysis, as of so many other
systems which like it were decried and yet later were highly valued, that
the enemies of to-day are the friends of to-morrow.

Whoever wishes to judge Freud must take the trouble to initiate himself