[4] Freud's guidelines, especially with regard to the bracketing of ethical judgements, and personal disclosures, rapidly became accepted in the psychoanalytic mainstream,[1]: 143 as did the need to respect the patient's speech and not impose preconceptions on it.
Neutrality meant resisting the natural impulse to reciprocate affects, so as to remain in a position to analyse the transference, not respond to it.
[1]: 149 Freud's analytic practice was noticeably less austere than the principles of neutrality he laid down: he would argue with, praise, and lend money to patients,[1]: 37 and even records feeding the Rat Man on one occasion.
[7] However the first theoretical challenge to Freud's concept came from Sándor Ferenczi, who saw the analyst's attitude of non-disclosure in particular as part of the problem not the solution.
[8] Others would subsequently expand on Ferenczi's points, Nina Coltart for example suspecting the "austere and benevolently neutral manner which we hold as our working ideal" and stressing that "we can do no harm to a patient by showing authentic affect".