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The author first addresses a question put to Freud about the possible similarity between psychoanalysis and the expulsion technique practised by exorcists, ‘drastic therapy’; she then refers to Freud’s emphasis on what the psychoanalyst has in common with the chemist who creates explosions. A contrasting aspect is then revealed concerning the treatment of Elisabeth: to alleviate the fright generated by the interpretation that discloses the loving impulse, Freud emphasises ‘consoling arguments’—the patient’s non-responsibility for the loving impulse and her high morality—which are to reassure the person who is presented as ‘poor child’, terms reminiscent of Goethe’s character, Mignon.