CHAPTER LXXIII
 

PSYCHOANALYSIS: EXPLORING THE HIDDEN
RECESSES OF THE MIND
 

By SIGMUND FREUD, M.D., LL.D. (Vienna).
The founder of Psychoanalysis, whose revolutionary views have
markedly influenced the mental sciences.
 

Authorised Translation, by DR. A. A. BRILL, of New York.
 

I
 

HISTORY OF PSYCHOANALYSIS
 

PSYCHOANALYSIS may be called a child of the twentieth century. The
publication with which it was ushered into the world as something new, my
Interpretation of Dreams, bears the date of 1900. But it is quite obvious that
it did not gush forth from the rock nor fall from heaven; it is connected
with something older which it continued; it resulted from stimuli which it
elaborated. Its history must be dated from the influences which had a
decisive effect in its origin and must not omit the times and circumstances
that preceded its creation.
 

Psychoanalysis grew up on a very narrow foundation. In the beginning
it had only one object, namely, to understand something concerning the
nature of the so-called "functional" nervous diseases and to overcome the
impatience hitherto shown by physicians in the treatment of these diseases.
The neurologists of this time were educated to esteem highly the physical
and anatomic-pathological facts. They were mainly influenced by the find-
ings of Hitzig, Fritsch, Ferrier, Goltz and others, who seemed to have demon-
strated an intimate, perhaps exclusive, connection between certain functions
and circumscribed parts of the brain. They knew nothing of the psychic
factors, they could not grasp them, they left them to the philosophers,
mystics and quacks, and considered it even unscientific to occupy themselves
with them. In consequence of this the approach to the mysteries of the
neuroses remained closed, and above all the access to the enigmatic "hys-
teria," which was really the model of the whole series.
 

In 1885, while I was still a hospital intern in the Salpêtrière (Paris), I
discovered that one was content to explain the hysterical paralyses by saying
that the milder functional disturbances are determined by the same parts of
the brain which are responsible for the severe injuries of corresponding
organie paralyses.
 

This deficient understanding naturally also influenced the therapy of these
morbid states. The latter consisted mainly in heroic measures, such as the
administration of drugs, for the most part very useless ones, unfriendly
methods of influencing the mind in the form of intimidations, mockings, lec-
turing the patient to use his will power, that is, to make an effort, "to pull
himself together." Electric treatment was supposed to be a specific for
nervous states, but whoever undertook to follow it according to the detailed
prescriptions of W. Erb wondered at the play of phantasy even in this
presumably exact science.
 

511
 

512
 

PSYCHOANALYSIS
 

The decisive turning-point came in the 'eighties, when the phenomenon
of hypnotism again knocked for admission on the doors of medical science;
this time it met with better success than ever before, thanks to the work of
Liébault, Bernheim, Heidenhain and Forel. It was mainly a question of
recognising the genuineness of these manifestations. Once this was admitted,
hypnotism impressed one with two fundamental and indelible principles. In
the first place, one became convinced that striking physical changes could
even result from psychic influences, which in this case could be artificially
produced; and secondly, from the post-hypnotic behaviour of the test person,
one became impressed with the existence of such psychic processes which
could be designated as "unconscious." To be sure, as a theoretical concept
the "unconscious" had for some time before been discussed by philosophers,
but here in the manifestations of hypnotism, it became for the first time
real, tangible, and an object of experiment. Moreover, the hypnotic phe-
nomena showed an unmistakable resemblance to the manifestations of some
of the neuroses.
 

The importance of hypnotism for the history of development of pay-
choanalysis must not be too lightly estimated. Both in theoretic as well as
in therapeutic aspects, psychoanalysis is the administrator of the estate taken
over from hypnotism.
 

HYPNOTISM AND CATHARSIS
 

Hypnosis also proved to be a valuable aid in the study of the neuroses,
and again, in the first place, in hysteria. Charcot's experiments made a
great impression; he thought that certain paralyses which appeared after a
trauma (accident) were of an hysterical nature, and that he could even
produce artificially paralyses of the same character by suggesting a traums
during hypnosis. Since then, it was presumed that traumatic influences
could, in a general way, participate in the origin of hysterical symptoms.
Charcot himself made no further effort to understand the psychology of the
hysterical neuroses, but his pupil, Pierre Janet, took up these studies and
with the aid of hypnosis could show that the morbid manifestations of hys-
teria depended closely on unconscious thoughts (idées fixes). The character
of hysteria, according to Janet, consisted in an assumed constitutional in-
capacity to hold together the psychic processes, in consequence of which there
results a disintegration (dissociation) of the psychic life.
 

But Janet's investigations are not in any way connected with psycho-
analysis; the latter was influenced mainly by the experience of a Viennese
physician, Dr. Joseph Breuer, who, independent of any outside influences,
studied and cured by means of hypnotism a highly gifted hysterical girl
Breuer's results were not brought to light until fifteen years later, after
he took the present writer (Freud) as his collaborator. The case treated by
him has retained its unique importance for our understanding of the neuroses
up to the present, so it is hardly possible not to dwell on it a bit longer.
 

It is necessary to understand clearly the peculiarities of Breuer's case.
The girl became ill as a result of nursing her father to whom she was
affectionately attached. Breuer was able to demonstrate that all her symp-
toms were traccable to this nursing and could be explained by it. It was the
first time that a case of this enigmatic neurosis became fully transparent and
that the morbid manifestations proved to be full of meaning. Moreover,
the common feature of the symptoms consisted in the fact that they origi
nated in situations in which there was an impulse to do something which was
not accomplished because other motives suppressed it. In the place of these
omitted actions there appeared symptoms. For the etiology of hysterical
 

513
 

SIGMUND FREUD
 

symptoms we were thus directed to the emotional life, the affectivity, and
to the play of the psychic or dynamic forces, and these two viewpoints
have not been relinquished since then.
 

The causes which gave origin to the symptoms in Breuer's case re-
sembled the traumatic factor of Charcot's. The remarkable fact about this
is that these traumatic causes and all psychic feelings connected with them
were altogether lost to the patient's memory, as if they had never happened,
while their effects, that is, the symptoms, continued unchanged as if un-
affected by the wear and tear of time. This furnished new evidence for the
existence of the unconerious, and just because of it, for particularly powerful
psychic processes resembling those originally recognised in post-hypnotie
suggestions. The therapy practised by Breuer consisted in causing the pa-
tient, while in a state of hypnotism, to recall the forgotten traumata and
to react to them with marked affective expressions. The symptom which until
now took the place of such emotional expressions then disappeared. The same
procedure served at the same time for the investigation and removal of the
symptom, and this unusual union also was adhered to by the later psy-
choanalysis.
 

PSYCHOGENETIC ELEMENTS OF HYSTERIA
 

In the early nineties, after the writer had corroborated in a great many
cases Breuer's results, they (Breuer and Freud) decided to give out a
publication which described their experiences and contained an attempt to
formulate a theory based upon these experiences. (Hysteria and Other
Psychoneuroses, translated by Dr. A. A. Brill, Monograph Series of Journal
of Nervous and Mental Diseases Pub. Co.) This theory states that hysteri-
cal symptoms result if the affect of a markedly emotionally accentuated
psychic process is deflected from normal conscious claboration and thus
pushed on a false path. In the case of hysteria, it then passes over into
unaccustomed bodily innervations, thus causing a conversion of psychic into
physical, but can be conducted elsewhere and discharged (abreacted) if
revived in a state of hypnosis. The authors called their procedure catharsis
or cleansing.
 

The cathartic method is the immediate predecessor of psychoanalysis and,
despite all expansions of this experience and all the modifications of the
theory, it is still retained as its nucleus. But it was merely a new path to
the medical treatment of some nervous diseases, and there was not the
slightest indication that it would become the object of most widespread inter-
est and of the most violent controversies.
 

II
 

HYPNOTISM SUPERSEDED BY PSYCHOANALYSIS
 

Soon after the publication of the studies in hysteria the collaboration of
Breuer and Freud came to an end. Breuer who was really a general prac-
titioner gave up the treatment of nervous diseases, while Freud took pains
to further perfect the instrument left to him by his older colleague. The
technical innovations which he initiated and the new discoveries which he
made transformed the cathartic method into psychoanalysis.
 

The most consequential step was the one which he took in abandoning the
technical remedy of hypnotism. Two motives induced him to do this: first,
because in spite of a course of instruction with Bernheim in Nancy, he was
not successful in putting under hypnosis a sufficiently large number of pa-
T. E. Y. VOL. 11-33
 

PSYCHOANALYSIS
 

514
 

tients; and, secondly, because he was dissatisfied with the therapeutic results
of catharsis based on hypnosis. Although these results were very striking and
appeared after a short period of treatment, they did not turn out to be
durable, and depended too much on the personal relation between patient
and physician. The relinquishing of hypnosis signified a break with the
method hitherto developed and marked a new beginning.
 

But as hypnosis had served the purpose of bringing back to the patient's
conscious memory the forgotten material, it had to be replaced by another
technique. It then occurred to Freud to substitute for it the method of
free associations, that is, he urged the patients to give up all conscious
reflection and to abandon themselves in calm concentration to the following
up of their spontaneous (unwilled) mental occurrences, or, "to steer clear
of the surface of consciousness." These mental flashes should be communi-
cated to the physician even if they feel some opposition to them, as for
example, on the ground that the thought is too disagreeable, too senseless,
or very unimportant, or that it does not belong here.
 

The choice of the free association as an aid in the investigation of the
forgotten unconscious material seems so strange that it will not be amiss
to say a word in its justification. In using this method Freud was guided
by the expectation that the so-called free associations will in reality prove
to be not free, in that after the suppression of all conscious and mental in-
tentions it would be found that these mental occurrences were determined
by unconscious material. Experience justified this expectation. By following
the free associations according to the strict observations of the "analytic
fundamental principles" mentioned above, one obtains a rich material of
mental occurrences which leads back to the tracks of the material forgot-
ten by the patient. To be sure, the material does not exactly bring back
the exact forgotten things, but it shows such clear and rich indications of
them, that with some restorations and interpretations the physician is enabled
to conjecture (reconstruct) the same. Free associations and the art of inter-
pretation thus furnish the same results as the former method of hypnotising.
 

Apparently the work has been made more difficult and more complex,
but the inestimable gain lies in the insight gained concerning the play of
forces which was not revealed to the observer through the hypnotic condition.
One realises that the work of uncovering the pathogenic forgotten material
has to contend with a constant and very intensive resistance. The critical
objections with which the patient strives to exclude the emerging thoughts
and against which the analytic principles are directed, are already expres-
sions of these resistances.
 

From the estimation of the phenomenon of resistance there resulted one
of the pillars of the psychoanalytic theory of the neuroses, namely, the theory
of repression. It was quite natural to assume that the same forces which
at present struggled against making conscious the pathogenic material have
formerly striven against it with success. Thus the gap in the etiology of
the neurotic symptoms was filled. The impressions and psychic feelings,
for which the symptoms were now substitutes, were not forgotten without
reason, or in consequence of a constitutional inability for synthesis, as Janet
thinks, but had experienced repression through the influence of the psychic
forces, whose success and distinction lay precisely in keeping them from con-
sciousness and excluding them from memory. The first became pathogenic
as the result of this repression, that is, they created for themselves, on un-
usual paths, an expression in the form of symptoms.
 

As motive for repression and also as cause of every neurotic disease, one
must conceive the conflict between two groups of psychic strivings. And
 

515
 

SIGMUND FREUD
 

now experience taught quite a new and surprising fact concerning the nature
of the forces struggling with each other. The repression regularly emanated
from the conscious personality (from the ego) of the patient and concerned
ethical and aesthetic motives. Repression affected the feelings of selfishness
and cruelty, which may be generally conceived as evil, but above all the
sexual wish feelings, often of the most glaring and forbidden kind. The
symptoms of the disease were thus a substitute for forbidden gratifications,
and the disease seemed to correspond to an imperfect taming of the immoral
elements in man.
 

IMPORTANCE OF SEX IN ITS BROADER CONCEPTION
 

With the progress in knowledge it became clearer and clearer that the
sexual wish feelings play an enormous part in the psychic life and give occa-
sion for a detailed study of the nature and evolution of the sexual impulses.
(Freud, "Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex," translated by Dr.
A. A. Brill, Monograph Series, Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases.)
But one also came upon another, purely empiric result. by discovering that
the experiences and conflicts of the first years of childhood play an unsus-
pectedly important rôle in the development of the individual and leave be-
hind indelible dispositions for the period of pubescence. Thus something
was discovered which was hitherto systematically overlooked in science,
the infantile sexuality, which from the tenderest age begins to manifest
itself in physical reactions as well as in psychic attitudes. In order to bring
together this infantile sexuality with the so-called normal sexuality of the
adult and with abnormal sex life of perverts the concept sexual had itself
need for adjustment and extension, which could be justified by the history
of the evolution of the sexual instinct.
 

Since hypnosis was replaced by the technique of free association, Breuer's
cathartic method became psychoanalysis, and for more than a decade was
developed by the writer (Freud) himself.
 

RELATION OF PSYCHOANALYSIS TO MEDICAL AND NON-MEDICAL FIELDS
 

During this period psychoanalysis gradually developed a theory which
seemed to give adequate information concerning the origin, meaning and
purpose of the neurotic symptoms, and furnished a rational foundation for
the medical efforts of removing the malady. I will again group together the
factors which constitute the content of this theory. They are as follows: the
emphasis laid on the impulsive life (affectivity), the psychic dynamic, the
transparent ingeniousness and determination even of the psychic phenomena
that are seemingly most obscure and arbitrary, the theory of psychic conflict
and of the pathogenic nature of the repression, the conception of the morbid
symptoms as substitutive gratifications, and the recognition of the etiologi-
cal importance of the sexual life, particularly the additions of the infantile
sexuality. Philosophically considered, this theory must assume the attitude
that psychic is not identified with consciousness, that psychic processes are
in themselves unconscious, and can only be made conscious through the ac-
tivity of special organs (instances, systems). To complete this enumeration,
I will add that among the affective attitudes of childhood there arises the
complicated emotional relation to parent, the so-called Oedipus Complex,
in which one recognises more and more clearly the nucleus of every case of
neurotic disease, and that in the behaviour of the person analysed one
 

PSYCHOANALYSIS
 

516
 

observes certain striking manifestations of emotional transference directed
at the physician, which are of great significance for the theory as well as
the technique.
 

Even in this form the psychoanalytic theory contained much that ran
counter to existing opinions and tendencies, and evoked in outsiders astonish-
ment, aversion, and incredulity. This showed itself in the attitude towards
the problem of the unconscious, the recognition of an infantile sexuality, and
the emphasis of the sexual factor in the psychic generally. But there was
still more to come.
 

III
 

EROTIC WISHES AND PAINFUL SYMPTOMS
 

In order to understand in a measure how a forbidden sexual wish in a
hysterical girl can become transformed into a painful hysterical symptom,
it was necessary to formulate profound and complicated assumptions con-
cerning the structure and function of the psychic apparatus. That showed
an obvious inconsistency between expenditure and result. If the relations
attributed to psychoanalysis actually existed, they were perforce of a funda-
mental nature and must have manifested themselves in other phenomena
besides those of hysteria. But if this inference was true, then psychoanalysis
ceased to be an object of interest to neurologists only; it must also claim
the attention of all those who are in any way interested in psychological
investigation. Its results must not only be taken into account in the spheres
of the pathological psychic life, but must also not be neglected in the under-
standing of normal functioning.
 

THE NEW PSYCHOLOGY
 

The proof of its usefulness in the explanation of other than mere morbid
psychic activities was early demonstrated by psychoanalysis in two different
kinds of phenomena: in the very common everyday faulty actions (forget-
ting, lapses in speech, misplacing things, etc.) and in the dreams of healthy
and psychically normal individuals.
 

The slight faulty actions, like the temporary forgetting of otherwise
familiar proper names, slips of the tongue, mistakes in writing and similar
mechanisms, were hitherto deemed unworthy of an explanation or were
attributed to states of fatigue, distraction of attention, and similar dis-
turbances. But the writer could demonstrate by numerous examples that
such occurrences are full of meaning, and came into existence as a result of
the disturbance of a conscious intention by another suppressed one, often
directly unconscious. (Psychopathology of Everyday Life, translated by Dr.
A. A. Brill, T. Fisher Unwin, London, and The Macmillan Co., New York.)
In most cases rapid reflection or a short analysis will demonstrate the dis-
turbing influence. In the frequency of such faulty actions as slips of the
tongue, any one can easily be convinced of non-conscious psychic processes
in his own person, which are nevertheless active and express themselves
as inhibitions and modifications of other intentional acts.
 

TIIE FUNCTION OF THE DREAM EXPLAINED FOR THE FIRST TIME
 

The analysis of dreams which the author published in 1900 led further.
(The Interpretation of Dreams, translated by Dr. A. A. Brill, Allen and
 

Curtiss-Schervee Studios
 

Charles Seymour (Chapter VI).
 

Robert C. Brooks (Chapter XLII).
 

Bachrach
 

N. Jorga (Chapter L).
 

Thomas N. Carver (Chapter LXXX).
 

Keystone View Co.
 

Clarence H. Haring (Chapter LXI).
 

Sigmund Freud (Chapter LXXIII).
 

SIX OF THE CONTRIBUTORS TO THESE EVENTFUL YEARS
 

ERROR: Invalid Base64 format detected: EMPTY_PAGE

SIGMUND FREUD
 

517
 

Unwin, London, 1913, and The Macmillan Co., New York.) It showed that
the dream is not differently constructed from the neurotic symptom. Like
the latter it may seem strange and senseless, but when it is examined by
means of a technique which differs slightly from the free association method
used in psychoanalysis one gets from its manifest content to its hidden
meaning, or to its latent thoughts. This latent meaning is each time a wish
feeling which is represented as fulfilled in the present. But except in little
children and under the pressure of imperative physical needs, this secret
wish can never be openly expressed. It must first be subjected to a distortion,
which is the work of restricting censorial forces in the dreamer's ego. Thus
originates the manifest dream as it is recalled on awakening; distorted
beyond recognition by the concessions to the dream censor, it can neverthe-
less be unmasked by the analysis as an expression of a state of gratification,
or of a wish fulfilment; it is a compromise between two contending groups
of psychic strivings, just as we have found in the hysterical symptom. The
formula "the dream is a (disguised) fulfilment of a (repressed) wish".
best describes in principal the essence of the dream. By studying that
process which transforms the latent dream wish into the manifest dream
content (the dream work), we have been enabled to discover most of the
knowledge that has thus far been acquired on the subject of the nature and
functions of the unconscious psychic life.
 

Now the dream is no morbid symptom but a function of the normal
psychic life. The wishes which it represents as fulfilled are the same which
merge into repression in the neurosis. The dream owes the possibility of
its origin to the favourable circumstance that during the state of sleep,
which paralyses man's motility, the repression becomes reduced to the dream
censor. Still, when the dream formation oversteps certain limits, the dreamer
makes an end to it and awakens terrified. It is thus demonstrated that the
normal psychic life contains the same forces and the same processes as the
morbid. From the interpretation of dreams, psychoanalysis obtained a
twofold significance; it was not only a new therapy for the neuroses, but
also a new psychology; it not only claimed the attention of the nerve
specialists, but also all of those engaged in the study of the mental sciences
in any form.
 

PSYCHOANALYSIS GAINS RECOGNITION DESPITE ENORMOUS OPPOSITION
 

However, the reception accorded to it in the world of science was not
a friendly one. For about a decade no one bothered about Freud's works.
In about 1907 a group of Swiss psychiatrists (Bleuler and Jung in Zürich)
turned their attention to psychoanalysis, and then a storm of indignation
broke loose, especially in Germany, which in method and debate was de-
cidedly coarse. Psychoanalysis thereby shared the fate of so many new
movements, which after the lapse of a certain period found general recogni-
tion. To be sure, by its very nature it had to arouse particularly violent
opposition. It offended the preconceived notions of civilised beings in some
particularly sensitive spots; in a certain way it subjected all people to the
analytic reactions, in that it revealed what by general agreement was re-
pressed into the unconscious and thus forced the public to behave like the
patients, who above all bring to the surface their resistances during the
analytic treatment. It must be admitted that it was by no means an easy
matter to overcome the obstacles to an understanding of the correctness of
the psychoanalytic theories or to obtain real instruction in the practice of
psychoanalysis.
 

PSYCHOANALYSIS
 

518
 

The general hostility could not, however, prevent psychoanalysis from
continually expanding in the course of the next decade in two directions:
on the map, in that it aroused interest in one country after another; and in
the field of mental sciences, in that it was more and more applied to newer
branches of science. In 1909, President Stanley Hall invited Freud and Jung
to give lectures on psychoanalysis at Clark University, Worcester, Mass.
Here, too, the subject was cordially received. Since then psychoanalysis has
enjoyed popularity in America although in this country much superficiality
and abuse are masked under this name. In 1911 Havelock Ellis made the
statement that psychoanalysis is not only studied and practised in Austria and
Switzerland but also in the United States, England, India, Canada, and surely
also in Australasia.
 

It was in this period of struggle and prosperity that those literary periodi-
cals came into existence which were absolutely devoted to psychoanalysis.
These were the Jahrbuch für Psychoanalytische and Psychopathologische
Forschungen, edited by Bleuler and Freud and managed by Jung (1909-
1914), the publication of which was suspended at the outbreak of the World
War; the Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse, 1911, managed by Adler and Stekel,
which was later changed to the Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse,
1913 (now in its 11th year); in addition, Rank and Sachs founded in 1912
the Imago, a journal devoted to the application of psychoanalysis to the
mental sciences. The great interest of Anglo-American physicians manifested
itself in 1913 in the foundation of the still existing Psychoanalytic Review,
edited by Jelliffe and White. Later, in 1920, there appeared the International
Journal of Psycho-Analysis, edited by Jones. The Internationale Psycho-
analytische Verlag and the corresponding English enterprise (The Interna-
tional Psycho-Analytic Press) are giving out a series of analytic works under
the name of the Internationale Psychoanalytische Bibliothek (International
Psycho-Analytic Library). To be sure, the literature of psychoanalysis is
not confined to these periodic publications, which are largely maintained by
the psychoanalytic societies, but are disseminated in a great many places in
both scientific and literary productions. Among the journals of the Latin
world the Revista de Psiquiatria edited by H. Delgado in Lima, Peru, must
be mentioned. This periodical pays particular attention to the matter of
psychoanalysis.
 

An essential difference between the second and first decades of psycho-
analysis lay in the fact that the writer was no longer its sole representative.
A constantly increasing circle of pupils and followers gathered about him,
whose work in the first place was to spread the psychoanalytic theories and
then continue to develop, amplify, and deepen them. In the course of years,
it was inevitable that many of these followers should fall away; they either
went their own way or turned to an opposition which seemed to threaten
the continuity in the development of psychoanalysis. Between 1911 and
1913, C. G. Jung, of Zürich, and Alfred Adler, of Vienna, caused a certain
amount of disturbance by their attempts to misinterpret the analytic facts and
by their efforts to deviate from the viewpoints of analysis; but it was soon
seen that these secessions caused no lasting injury. The temporary success
of their ventures can easily be explained by the readiness of the crowd to
free itself from the pressure of the psychoanalytic demands by whatever road
might be open to them. The greatest number of fellow-workers remained
firm and continued the work along the paths indicated to them. We shall
meet their names repeatedly in the following very abridged presentation
of the results of psychoanalysis in the various fields in which it has thus far
been applied.
 

SIGMUND FREUD
 

519
 

IV
 

PSYCHOANALYSIS AS A THERAPY IN MEDICINE
 

The noisy rejection meted out to psychoanalysis by the medical world
could not prevent its followers from following its original intention and
develop it into a special pathology and therapy of the neuroses, a task which
even to-day is not altogether accomplished. The incontestable curative re-
sults, which surpassed everything heretofore accomplished, stimulated to
greater and greater efforts, and the difficulties which arose with deeper
penetration into the material produced far-reaching changes in the analytic
technique, and important corrections in the assumptions and hypotheses of
the theory.
 

In the course of this development the technique of psychoanalysis became
as definite and refined as any other medical speciality. In not recognising
this fact, much harm is done particularly in England and America, in that
persons who have acquired merely a literary knowledge of psychoanalysis
through reading, consider themselves capable of giving psychoanalytic treat-
ment without subjecting themselves to any special schooling. The result of
such procedure is very harmful to the science as well as the patient.
 

The establishment of the first psychoanalytic polyclinic by M. Eitingon
(in 1920 in Berlin) was, therefore, a step of great practical importance. This
institute endeavours on the one hand to make the analytic therapy accessible
to a wider circle of people, and on the other hand it offers a course of instruc-
tion to physicians desiring to practice analysis on condition that the student
will subject himself to an analysis.
 

Among the helpful concepts which enable the physician to master the
analytic material, the concept of libido must be mentioned first. In psycho-
analysis libido signifies, in the first place, that quantitatively changeable and
measurable force of the sexual impulses (in the broader sense of the analytic
theory) which is directed to an object. Further study showed the need of
putting next to this object libido one that is directed to one's own ego, a
narcistic or ego libido, and the effects of the interchanges between these two
forces have enabled us to give an account of a great many normal as well
as pathological processes in the psychic life. It was soon found that there
was a coarse separation between the so-called transference neuroses and the
narcistic affections. The former, that is, hysteria and compulsion neuroses,
are the real object of the psychoanalytic therapy, while the others or the
narcistic neuroses, although they can be studied with the aid of analysis,
nevertheless offer real difficulties to the therapeutic influences. It is a fact,
however, that the libido theory of psychoanalysis is not at all complete, and
that its relation to a general theory of instincts is not yet clarified; but it
must be remembered that psychoanalysis is still a young science, altogether
unfinished, and in the process of a rapid development. Right here it must
be emphasised how erroneous is the reproach of pan-sexuality, which is as
much as saying that the psychoanalytic theory does not recognise any other
psychic instinctive forces except the sexual, and at the same time the critics,
taking advantage of a popular prejudice, use the term "sexual" not in the
broad analytic but in the vulgar sense.
 

PSYCHOANALYSIS GIVES NEW INTEREST AND VALUE TO PSYCHIATRY
 

To the narcistic affections the psychoanalytic conception must add all
the maladies which are designated in psychiatry as the "functional psy-
 

PSYCHOANALYSIS
 

520
 

choses." There is hardly any doubt that neuroses and psychoses were no
more sharply distinguished than health and neuroses, and it was only natural
that, in order to explain the puzzling psychotic phenomena, one should make
use of the knowledge gained from the hitherto obscure neuroses. Already in
the period of his isolation the writer studied a paranoid case analytically and
made it half-way intelligible, and also demonstrated in this unequivocal psy-
chosis the same contents (complexes) and a similar play of forces as in the
neuroses. E. Bleuler showed in a whole number of psychoses what he called
"Freudian Mechanisms," and C. G. Jung suddenly jumped into the lime-
light as an analyst, when, in 1907, he explained the peculiar symptoms in
the terminal issues of dementia praecox by the individual life-histories of
these patients. The comprehensive elaboration of schizophrenia by Bleuler,
in 1911, has probably substantiated definitely the justification of psycho-
analytic viewpoints for the understanding of these psychoses. (Bleuler:
Text Book of Psychiatry, transl. by A. A. Brill, Macmillan, N. Y., 1924.)
 

In this manner psychiatry became the next sphere of application for psy-
choanalysis, and so it has remained ever since. The same investigators who
have done most for a profounder analytic knowledge of the neuroses, men
like K. Abraham, of Berlin, and S. Ferenczi, of Budapest, to mention only
the most renowned ones, remained also the leaders in the analytic illumina-
tion of the psychoses. The conviction of the unity and homogeneity of all
the disturbances which manifest themselves, as neurotic and psychotic phe-
nomena, is carried out, all strivings of the psychiatrists to the contrary not-
withstanding. It is becoming obvious-perhaps mostly in America - that
only the psychoanalytic study of the neuroses can furnish the preparation
for the understanding of the psychoses, that psychoanalysis is called upon
to make possible a scientific psychiatry of the future, which will no longer
be content with pictorial descriptions of strange conditions, inconceivable
endings, and with the investigation of the influence of coarse anatomic and
toxic traumas on the psychic apparatus inaccessible to our knowledge.
 

V
 

LIGHT THROWN ON THE HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS
 

But psychoanalysis would never have attracted the attention of the in-
tellectual world or have gained for itself a place in the history of our times
because of its importance for psychiatry. This influence was due to the
relation of psychoanalysis to the normal psychic life, and not to the patho-
logical. For the original intention of the analytic study was simply to dis-
cover the conditions for the origin (genesis) of some morbid psychic states,
but in this effort it succeeded in revealing relations of basic importance,
precisely to create a new psychology, so that one was compelled to say that
the value of such a discovery could hardly be restricted to the field of pa-
thology. We already know when the decisive proof of the correctness of this
conclusion came to us. It was after it became possible to interpret dreams
by the analytic technique, dreams which although originating in the psychic
life of normals, still correspond to actual pathological productions and regu
larly appear in healthy states.
 

If one adhered to the psychological views gained through the study of
dreams, it was only one step forward to proclaim psychoanalysis as the
theory of the deeper psychic processes not directly accessible to conscious-
ness, and as a "psychology of the deeper mental strata" (Tiefenpsychologie)
to apply it to almost all the mental sciences. This step consisted in the
 

SIGMUND FREUD
 

521
 

transition from the psychic activity of the individual to the psychic func-
tions of human communities and races, that is from individual to group
psychology, and one was forced to it by many surprising analogies. Thus
it was found that in the deep strata of unconscious mental activity con-
trasts are not distinguished one from the other but are expressed by the same
element. But the philologist, K. Abel, had already made the assertion in
1884 (Ueber den Gegensinn der Urworte) that the oldest languages known
to us have treated the contrast in the same manner. Thus the old Egyptian
language had originally only one word for strong and weak and only later
were the sides of the antithesis distinguished by slight modifications. Even
in the most modern languages one can demonstrate distinct remnants of
these contrasting meanings; thus the German "Boden" signifies the upper-
most as well as the lowest part of the house, and similarly "Altus" means
high and deep in Latin. The equalisation of contrasts in dreams is thus
a common archaic feature of human thinking.
 

AGREEMENT BETWEEN SOME NEUROSES AND RELIGIONS
 

To give an example from another sphere, the following may be cited:
It is impossible to ignore the perfect agreement which one discovers between
the compulsive actions of some compulsive neurotics and the religious cere-
monials of pious persons the world over. Some cases of compulsion neu-
roses behave exactly like a caricatured private religion, so that one feels
tempted to compare the official religions to compulsion neuroses moderated
by their commonness. This comparison, which is most offensive to all be-
lievers, nevertheless became very fruitful psychologically. For in the case
of compulsion neurosis, psychoanalysis soon became aware of the forces
struggling here until their conflicts have created for themselves the remark-
able expression through the ceremonial of the obsessions. Nothing of the
sort was conjectured regarding the religious ceremonial, until, by tracing
back the religious feeling to the father relationship as its deepest root, it
became possible to demonstrate here, too, the analogical dynamic situation.
This example, moreover, may remind the reader of the fact that in the ap-
plication of psychoanalysis to non-medical fields also, one cannot help wound-
ing highly regarded prejudices touching upon deep-rooted sensibilities, and
thus provoking hostile feelings which essentially have an effective basis.
 

If we may assume that the most common relations of the unconscious
psychic life, such as the conflicts of the impulsive feelings, repressions and
substitutive formations, exist everywhere, and if there is a "depth-psychol-
ogy" which leads to the knowledge of these relations, then it is only fair
to expect that the application of psychoanalysis to the most varied fields of
the psychic life will everywhere bring to light important and hitherto un-
attainable results. A very comprehensive study by Otto Rank and H. Sachs
has attempted to show to what extent the work of the psychoanalysts had
fulfilled this expectation up to the year 1913. Lack of space prevents me
from attempting to complete here this enumeration. I can only emphasise
the most important result and add to it a few details.
 

If the little-known inner impulses are disregarded, it may be said that the
mainspring of the cultural development of man has been the real outer neces-
sity which denied him the comfortable gratification of his natural wants and
subjected him to enormous dangers. This denial from the outer world forced
him to struggle with reality to which he partially adapted himself, and par-
tially mastered, but it has also compelled him to coöperate and live together
with his fellow-beings; this presupposed a renunciation of some impulsive
 

PSYCHOANALYSIS
 

522
 

feelings that could not be gratified socially. The needs for repression in-
creased with further progress of civilisation. For civilisation is altogether
founded on renunciation of impulses; and every single individual, on his way
from childhood to maturity, must repeat in his own person this develop-
ment of mankind to reasonable resignation. Psychoanalysis has shown that
it is preponderately, if not exclusively, sexual impulsive feelings which suc-
cumb to this cultural suppression. A part of these now shows the valuable
quality that it may be deflected from its nearest aim, and as "sublimated"
strivings it places its energy at the disposal of cultural development. But
another portion remains in the unconscious as ungratified wish feelings, and
strives for any sort of gratification even if it be a distorted one.
 

STRUGGLE BETWEEN MAN AND THE OUTER WORLD RESULTED IN MYTHS,
POETRY AND ART
 

We have heard that a fragment of the human psychic activity is directed
to the mastery of the real outer world. Psychoanalysis adds, however, that
another part of the psychic activity serves the wish realisation, or the sub-
stitutive gratifications of those repressed wishes which have dwelt ungratified
in the psyche of every person since the years of his childhood. Myths, poetry
and art belong to these creations whose relation to an incomprehensible un-
conscious has always been conjectured, and as a matter of fact the work of
psychoanalysis has thrown an abundance of light on the fields of mythology,
literature, and on the psychology of the artist. The works of Otto Rank
may be mentioned as a model in these fields. It has been shown that myths
and fairy tales are as accessible to interpretation as dreams, that the intri-
cate mazes leading from the impetus of the unconscious wish to its realisa-
tion in a work of art have been followed, that the emotional effect of the
work of art on the recipient has been made intelligible, and that in the
artist himself his inner relationships to the neurotic, as well as their differ-
ences, have been explained, and the connection between his predisposition,
his accidental experiences, and his accomplishments have been demonstrated.
The aesthetic estimation of a work of art as well as the explanation of artis-
tic endowment are not to be considered as tasks for psychoanalysis. But
it seems that in all questions which concern the human life of phantasy, psy-
choanalysis is in position to speak the decisive word.
 

Now let us sum up: To our growing astonishment psychoanalysis has
taught us what an enormously important part is played in the psychic life
of man by the so-called oedipus complex or the affective relation of the child
to his two parents. This astonishment lessens when we appreciate that the
oedipus complex is the psychic correlate of two fundamental biological facts,
namely, the long infantile dependence of the human being, and the remark-
able way in which his sexual life reaches its first culminating point between
the ages of three and five, to reappear anew with puberty after a period of
inhibition. But it then dawned upon us that a third, most serious part of
the human psychic life, viz., that which brought into existence the great in-
stitutions of religion, law, ethics, as well as all forms of government, funda-
mentally tends to enable the individual to master his oedipus complex and
to lead over his libido from its infantile attachments to social needs ulti-
mately desirable. The application of psychoanalysis to the science of reli-
gion and sociology (Freud, Th. Reik, O. Pfister), which led to this result,
are still young and not fully appreciated, but there is no doubt that further
studies will only confirm the certainty of these important discoveries.
 

By way of an addendum, I must also mention the fact that pedagogics,
 

523
 

SIGMUND FREUD
 

too, cannot afford to ignore the suggestions offered to it by the analytic in-
vestigation of the infantile psychic life. Moreover, some therapeutists
(Groddek, Jelliffe) have expressed the opinion that there are good pros-
pects for psychoanalytic therapy even in severe organic affections, as in
many of these maladies there is also a psychic factor which can be influ-
enced by analysis.
 

THE EGO AND THE IT IN THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MAN
 

Thus the hope may be expressed that psychoanalysis, whose develop-
ment and accomplishment to the present has been here described in a
meagre and inadequate manner, will enter into the cultural development of
the next decades as an important ferment, and will aid us to a deeper under-
standing of the world and to resist some things recognised in life as harmful.
One must not forget, however, that psychoanalysis cannot in itself furnish
a perfect picture of the world. If one accepts the distinctions which I have
recently proposed, in dividing the psychic apparatus into an Ego which is
in touch with the outer world and is endowed with consciousness, and an
unconscious It which is dominated by the impulsive needs, then psycho-
analysis may be designated as a psychology of the It and its influences on
the Ego. Psychoanalysis can thus furnish only contributions to every field
of knowledge which must be supplemented by the psychology of the ego.
If these contributions, as so often happens, contain the very essentials of
a state of affairs, this merely shows the importance which the so long un-
recognised psychic unconscious may claim in our lives.
 

THESE EVENTFUL YEARS
 

THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
 

IN THE MAKING
 

AS TOLD BY MANY OF ITS MAKERS
 

BEING THE DRAMATIC STORY OF ALL THAT HAS
THROUGHOUT THE WORLD DURING
 

HAPPENED
 

THE MOST MOMENTOUS PERIOD IN ALL HISTORY
 

With 160 Full-Page Illustrations
and Numerous Maps
 

IN TWO VOLUMES
 

VOLUME II
 

LONDON
 

THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA COMPANY, LTD.
 

NEW YORK
 

ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA, INC.
 

ERROR: Invalid Base64 format detected: EMPTY_PAGE