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Also known as Durcharbeiten

The repeated, gradual overcoming of resistance to an interpretation already understood.

Resistance 1914 Freud introduces working through as the patient's labour on a resistance already named by the analyst: naming it does not end it, and the patient must be given time to work through and overcome it.
Repetition compulsion 1926 Freud grounds working through in the repetition compulsion. Even after the ego has resolved to give up its resistances, the power of the repetition compulsion, the pull of the unconscious prototypes on the repressed drive process, still has to be overcome. This resistance of the unconscious is what makes working through necessary.

Sigmund Freud 1914 Freud names working through in his 1914 paper on technique. Naming a resistance does not end it, and the patient must be given time to go on working against it under the fundamental rule. It is a trial of patience for both parties, and it is the part of the work that changes the patient most and sets analysis apart from suggestion. Theoretically he likens it to the abreaction of hypnotic treatment.

Cathartic method 1914 Freud presents working through as analysis's counterpart to the abreaction of the cathartic method. Theoretically it does the same job, discharging the affect held back by repression. But it does so through slow work against resistance under the fundamental rule, not through a single hypnotic discharge, and this is what sets analysis apart from suggestion.