It is a central feature of psychoanalytic theory – relating especially to the handling of the transference in analysis.
I mean by that not physical self-denial alone, nor the denial of every desire....But I want to state the principle that one must permit neediness and yearning to remain as forces favoring work and change.
[1]The validity of the abstinence principle has been rediscovered and reaffirmed in a variety of subsequent analytic traditions.
The rule of abstinence has come under increasing challenge by Interpersonal and Intersubjective psychoanalysis,[6] concerned about the inflexibility of the rule, and the way its relentless application may provoke unnecessary hostility, even an iatrogenic transference neurosis.
[7] Defenders of the rule, against the practice of the warm supportive analyst, argue against the easy seductiveness of being overly 'helpful' in a self-defeating way already sketched out by Freud himself.