Frank, Ludwig. Die psychokathartische Behandlung nervöser Störungen. (Psychoneurosen-Thymopathieri). Verlag Georg Thieme. Leipzig. 1927. IV + 208

Frank proposes to call psychoneuroses thymopathies, because psychoneuroses and all related diseases are disorders of the affective sphere of a quite definite nature. These are dynamic disorders of affective life, consisting mainly in the phenomena of the repression of affects, their accumulation and accumulation in the subconscious, their desire to move from the subconscious to the superconscious and the delay of this process due to the "internal resistance" (innerer Widerstand), displacing those striving for the release of affects back into the subconscious. With regard to the treatment of such dynamic disorders of the affective sphere, Frank considers psycho-cathartic treatment to be the most appropriate. The active principle of psychocatarsis is the awareness and secondary experience of affective excitations accumulated for various reasons in the subconscious. This is achieved in a hypnotic state of half-sleep, when the consciousness is narrowed only so much that the internal resistance falls, the delays disappear and there is a free reaction of the affects accumulated in the subconscious with the passive participation of superconscious attention. Having responded to the restrained affects and realizing those initial experiences with which painful symptoms are associated, the b-oh recovers.