[Current comments on Freud's treatment of "The question of lay analysis"].

The author gives a review on Freud's basic thoughts on lay analysis from 1926 and proceeds with the question why the Deutsche Psychoanalytische Vereinigung (German Psychoanalytic Association) admits only such candidates for psychoanalytic training who are physicians or psychologists. This corresponds with the policies of German health insurance agencies, which include only physicians directly or psychologists indirectly in their plans. He suggests that this attitude derives from a limited view of psychoanalysis, for which he names three different reasons: historical, institutional, and those that grow out of the specifics of psychoanalytic practice.