be

As
ke

m

i

- ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT = 1441

scious mental functions—a process which supposes the
overcoming of considerable resistance—the psychic con-
flict which then arises the same which the patient wished
to avoid, is made capable of a happier termination, under
the guidance of the physician, than is offered by repression,
There are several possible suitable decisions which can
bring conflict and neurosis to a happy end; in particular
cases the attempt may be made to combine several of these.
Either the personality of the patient may be convinced
that he has been wrong in rejecting the pathogenic wish,
and he may be made to accept it either wholly or in part;
or this wish may itself be directed to a higher goal which
is free from objection, by what is called sublimation
(Sublimierung); or the rejection may be recognized as
rightly motivated, and the automatic and therefore insuffi-
cient mechanism of repression be reinforced by the higher,
more characteristically human mental faculties: one suc-
ceeds in mastering his wishes by conscious thought.

Forgive me if I have not been able to present more
clearly these main points of the treatment which is today
known as “psychoanalysis.” The difficulties do not lie
merely in the newness of the subject.

Regarding the nature of the unacceptable wishes, which
succeed in making their influence felt out of the uncon-
scious, in spite of repression; and regarding the question
of what subjective and constitutional factors must be
present for such a failure of repression and such a surro-
gate or symptom creation to take place, we will speak in
later remarks.

Third Lecture

Ladies and Gentlemen: It is not always easy to tell
the truth, especially when one must be brief, and so today
I must correct an incorrect statement that I made in my

last lecture.

I told you how when J gave up using hypnosis IJ pressed!

my patients to tell me what came into their minds that had

#

42 AN OUTLINE OF PSYCHOANALYSIS |

to do with the problem we were working on, I told them
that they would remember what they had apparently for-
gotten, and that the thought which irrupted into conscious-
ness (Einfall) would surely embody the memory for which
we were seeking. I claimed that I substantiated the fact
that the first idea of my patients brought the right clew
and could be shown to be the forgotten continuation of the
memory. Now this is not always so; 1 represented it as
being so simple only for purposes of abbreviation. In
fact, it would only happen the first time that the right
forgotten material would emerge through simple pressure
on my part. If the experience was continued, ideas
emerged in every case which could not be the right ones,
for they were not to the purpose, and the patients them-
selves rejected them as incorrect. Pressure was of no
further service here, and one could only regret again
having given up hypnosis. In this state of perplexity 1
clung to a prejudice which years later was proved by my
friend C. G. Jung of the University of Zürich and his
pupils to have a scientific justification. I must confess
that it is often of great advantage to have prejudices. I
put a high value on the strength of the determination of
mental processes, and I could not believe that any idea
which occurred to the patient, which originated in a state
of concentrated attention, could be quite arbitrary and out
of all relation to the forgotten idea that we were seeking.
That it was not identical with the latter, could be satis-
factorily explained by the hypothetical psychological situ-
ation. In the patients whom I treated there were two
opposing forces: on the one hand the conscious striving to
drag up into consciousness the forgotten experience which
was present in the unconscious; and on the other hand the
resistance which we have seen, which set itself against the
- emergence of the suppressed idea or its associates into con-

sciousness. In case this resistance was nonexistent or very.

slight, the forgotten material could become conscious with-
out disguise (Enstellung). It was then a natural supposi-

u er > de

u i=

a \

!

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT 43

tion that the disguise would be the more complete, the
greater the resistance to the emergence of the idea.
Thoughts which broke into the patient’s consciousness in-
stead of the ideas sought for, were accordingly made up
just like symptoms; they were new, artificial, ephemeral
surrogates for the repressed ideas, and differed from these

just in proportion as they had been more completely dis-

guised under the influence of the resistances. These sur-
rogates must, however, show a certain similarity with the
ideas which are the object of our search, by virtue of their
nature as symptoms; and when the resistance is not too
intensive it is possible from the nature of these irruptions
to discover the hidden object of our search. This must
be related to the repressed thought as a sort of allusion,
as a statement of the same thing in indirect terms.

We know cases in normal psychology in which anal-
ogous situations to the one which we have assumed give
rise to similar experiences. Such a case is that of wit.
By my study of psychoanalytic technique I was necessarily
led to a consideration of the problem of the nature of wit.
I will give one example of this sort, which, too, is a story
that originally appeared in English.

The anecdote runs: ® Two unscrupulous business men
had succeeded by fortunate speculations in accumulating
a large fortune, and then directed their efforts to breaking
into good society. Among other means they thought it:
would be of advantage to be painted by the most famous
and expensive artist of the city,,a man whose paintings
were considered as events. The costly paintings were first
shown at a great soirée and both hosts led the most influ-
ential connoisseur and art critic to the wall of the salon
on which the portraits were hung, to elicit his admiring
judgment. The critic looked for a fone time, looked about
as though in search of something, and then merely asked

2 Der Witz und seine Beziehung sum Unbewussien, p. 59. Deu.

ticke, Vienna, 1905.

44 AN OUTLINE OF PSYCHGANALYSIS

pointing out the vacant space between the two pictures;
“And where is the Saviour ?”

I see that you are all laughing over this good example
of wit, which we will now attempt to analyze. We under-
stand that the critic means to say: “You are a couple of
malefactors, like those between whom the Saviour was
erucified.” But he does not say this, he expresses himself
instead in a way that at first seems not to the purpose and
not related to the matter in hand, but which at the next
moment we recognize as an allusion to the insult at which
he aims, and as a perfect surrogate for it. We cannot
expect to find in the case of wit all those relations that our

theory supposes for the origin of the irruptive ideas of
our patients, but it is my desire to lay stress on the similar
motivation of wit and irruptive idea. Why does not the
critic say directly what he has to say to the two rogues?
Because, in addition to his desire to say it straight out, he
is actuated by strong opposite motives. It is a proceeding
which is liable to be dangerous to offend people who are
one’s hosts, and who can call to their aid the strong arms
of numerous servants. One might easily suffer the same
Tate that I used in the previous lecture to illustrate repres-
sion. On this ground, the critic does not express the par-
ticular insult directly, but in a disguised form, as an allu-
sion with omission. ‘The same constellation comes into
play, according to our hypnothesis, when our patient pro-
duces the irruptive idea as a surrogate for the i
idea which is the object of the quest.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is very useful to desienae a
group of ideas Far belong together and have a common
emotive tone, according to he custom of the Zürich school
(Bleuler, Jung and others), as a “complex.” So we can
say that if we set out from the last memories of the patient
to look for a repressed complex, that we have every pros-
pect of discovering it, if only the patient will communicate
to us a sufficient number of the ideas which come into his
head. So we iet the patient speak along any line that he

eee ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT 45

desires, and cling to the hypothesis that nothing can occur :
to him except what has some indirect bearing on the com-
plex that we are seeking. If this method of discovering
the repressed complexes seems too circumstantial, I can
at least assure you that it is the only available one.

In practicing this technique, one is further bothered by
the fact that the patient often stops, is at a standstill, and
considers that he has nothing to say; nothing occurs to
him. If this were really the case and the patient were
right, our procedure would again be proven inapplicable.
Closer observation shows that such an absence of ideas
never really occurs, and that it only appears to when the
patient holds back or rejects the idea which he perceives,
under the influence of the resistance, which disguises itself
as critical judgment of the value of the idea. The patient
can be protected from this if he is warned in advance of
this circumstance, and told to take no account of the criti-
cal attitude. He must say anything that comes into his
mind, fully laying aside such critical choice, even though
he may think it unessential, irrelevant, nonsensical, espe-
cially when the idea is one which is unpleasant to dwell on,
By following this prescription we secure the material which
sets us on the track of the repressed complex.

These irruptive ideas, which the patient himself values
little, if he is under the influence of the resistance and not
that of the physician, are for the psychologist like the ore,
which by simple methods of interpretation he reduces
from its crude state to valuable metal. If one desires to
gain in a short time a preliminary knowledge of the pa-
tient’s repressed complexes, without going into the question
of their arrangement and associations, this examination
may be conducted with the help of the association experi-
ments, as Jung ?° and his pupils have perfected them. This
procedure is to the psychologist what qualitative analysis
is to the chemist; it may be dispensed with in the therapy
of neurotic patients, but is indispensable in the investiga-

10 Jung, C. G., Diagnostische Assoziationsstudien, B. 1, 1900.

3 PORT STAU
46 -AN OUTLINE OF PSYCHOANALYSIS

tions of the psychoses, which have been begun by the
Ziirich school with such valuable results.

This method of work with whatever comes into the
patient’s head when he submits to psychoanalytic treat-
ment, is not the only technical means at our disposal for
the widening of consciousness. Two other methods of pro-
cedure serve the same purpose, the interpretation of his
dreams and the evaluation of acts which he bungles or does
without intending to (Fehl- und Zufallshandlungen).

I might say, esteemed hearers, that for a long time I
hesitated whether instead of this hurried survey of the
whole field of psychoanalysis, I should not rather offer
you a thorough consideration of the analysis of dreams;
a purely subjective and apparently secondary motive de-
cided me against this. It seemed rather an impropriety
that in this country, so devoted to practical pursuits, I
should pose as “interpreter of dreams,” before you had a
chance to discover what significance the old and despised
art can claim.

Interpretation of dreams is in fact the via regia to the
interpretation of the unconscious, the surest ground of
psychoanalysis and a field in which every worker must
win his convictions and gain his education. If I were
asked how one could become a psychoanalyst. I should an-
swer, through the study of his own dreams. With great
tact all opponents of the psychoanalytic theory have so far
either evaded any criticism of the Traumdeutung™ or
have attempted to pass over it with the most superficial
objections. If, on the contrary, you will undertake the
solution of the problems of dream life, the novelties which
psychoanalysis present to your thoughts will no longer be
difficulties.

You must remember that our nightly dream produc-
tions show the greatest outer similarity and inner rela-
tionship to the creations of the insane, but on the other
hand are compatible with full health during waking life

11 Die Traumdcuih¥@, 2d ed. Deuticke, Vienna, 1000.

a or! or

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT 47

It does not sound at all absurd to say that whoever re-
gards these normal sense illusions, these delusions and
alterations of character as matter for amazement instead
of understanding, has not the least prospect of understand-
ing the abnormal creations of diseased mental states in
any other than the lay sense. You may with confidence
place in this lay group all the psychiatrists of to-day. Fol-
low me now on a brief excursion through the field of
dream problems.

In our waking state we usually treat dreams with as
little consideration as the patient treats the irruptive ideas
which the psychoanalyst demands from him. It is evi-
dent that we reject them, for we forget them quickly and
completely. The slight valuation which we place on them
is based, with those dreams that are not confused and
nonsensical, on the feeling that they are foreign to our
personality, and, with other dreams, on their evident ab-
surdity and senselessness. Our rejection derives support
from the unrestrained shamelessness and the immoral long-
ings which are obvious in many dreams. Antiquity, as
we know, did not share this light valuation of dreams.
The lower classes of our people today stick close to the
value which they set on dreams; they, however, expect
from them, as did the ancients, the revelation of the future.
I confess that I see no need to adopt mystical hypotheses
to fill out the gaps in our present knowledge, and so I
have never been able to find anything that supported the
hypothesis of the prophetic nature of dreams. Many
other things, which are wonderful enough, can be said
about them.

And first, not all dreams are so foreign to the character
of the dreamer, are incomprehensible and confused. If
you will undertake to consider the dreams of young chil-
dren from the age of a year and a half on, you will find
them quite simple and easy to interpret. The young child
always dreams of the fulfillment of wishes which were
aroused in him the day before and were not satisfied.
Vou need no art of interpretation to discover this simple

48 AN OUTLINE OF PSYCHOANALYSIS

solution, you only need to inquire into the experiences of
the child on the day before (the “dream day”). Now it
would certainly be a most satisfactory solution of the
dream-riddle, if the dreams of adults, too, were the same
as those of children, fulfillments of wishes which had been
aroused in them during the dream day. This is actually
the fact; the difficulties which stand in the way of this
solution can be removed step by step by a thorough analy-
sis of the dream.

There is, first of all, the most weighty objection, that.
the dreams of adults generally. have an incomprehensible
content, which shows wish-fulfillment least of anything.
The answer is this: these dreams have undergone a process
of disguise, the psychic content which underlies them was
originally meant for quite different verbal expression.
You must differentiate between the manifest dream-con-
tent, which we remember in the morning only confusedly,
and with difficulty clothe in words which seem arbitrary,
and the latent dream-thoughts, whose presence in the un-
conscious we must assume. This distortion of the dream
(Traumentstellung) is the same process which has been
revealed to you in the investigations of the creations
(symptoms) of hysterical subjects; it points to the fact
that the same opposition of psychic forces has its share in
the creation of dreams as in the creation of symptoms.

y? The manifest dream-content is the disguised surrogate
for the unconscious dream thoughts, and this disguising
is the work of the defensive forces of the ego, of the re-
sistances. These prevent the repressed wishes from enter-
ing consciousness during the waking life, and even in the
relaxation of sleep they are still streng enough to force
them to hide themselves by a sort of masquerading. The
dreamer, then, knows just as little the sense of his dream
as the hysterical knows the relation and significance of his
symptoms. That there are latent dream-thoughts and that
between them and the manifest dream-content there exists -
the relation just described—of this you may convince

A

- ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT 49

yourselves by the analysis of dreams, a procedure the
technique of which is exactly that of psychoanalysis. You
must abstract entirely from the apparent connection of the
elements in the manifest dream and seek for the irruptive
ideas which arise through free association, according to
the psychoanalytic laws, from each separate dream ele-

" ment. From this material the latent dream thoughts may

be discovered, exactly as one divines the concealed com-
plexes of the patient from the fancies connected with his
symptoms and memories. From the latent dream thoughts
which you will find in this way, you will see at once how
thoroughly justified one is in interpreting the dreams of
adults by the same rubrics as those of children. What is
now substituted for the manifest dream-content is the real
sense of the dream, is always clearly comprehensible, asso-
ciated with the impressions of the day before, and appears
as the fulfilling of an unsatisfied wish. The manifest
dream, which we remember after waking, may tlien be
described as a disguised fulfillment of repressed wishes.

It is also: possible by a sort of synthesis to get some
insight into the process which has brought about the dis-
guise of the unconscious dream thoughts as the manifest
dream-content. We call this process “dream-work’”
(Traumarbeit). This deserves our fullest theoretical in-
terest, since here as nowhere else we can study the unsus-
pected psychic processes which are existent in the uncon-
scious, or, to express it more exactly, between two such
separate systems as the conscious and the unconscious.
Among these newly discovered psychic processes, two, con-
_densation (Verdichtung) and displacement or transvalua-
tion, change of psychic accent (Verschiebung), stand out
most prominently. Dream work is a special case of the
reaction of different mental groupings on each other, and
as such is the consequence of psychic fission. In all essen-
tial points it seems identical with the work of disguise,
which changes the repressed complex in the case of failing
repression into symptoms.

50 AN OUTLINE OF PSYCHOANALYSIS

You will furthermore discover by the analysis of dreams,
most convincingly your own, the unsuspected importance
of the rdle which impressions and experiences from early
_ childhood exert on the development of men. In the dream
life the child, as it were, continues his existence in the man,
with a retention of all his traits and wishes, including those
which he was obliged to allow to fall into disuse in his later
years. With irresistible might it will be impressed on you
by what processes of development, of repression, sublima-
tion and reaction there arises out of the child, with its
peculiar gifts and tendencies, the so-called normal man, the
bearer and partly the victim of our painfully acquired
civilization. I will also direct your attention to the fact
that we have discovered from the analysis of dreams that
the unconscious makes use of a sort of symbolism, espe-
cially in the presentation of sexual complexes. This sym-
bolism in part varies with the individual, but in part is of
a typical nature, and seems to be identical with the symbol-
ism which we suppose to lie behind our myths and legends.
It is not impossible that these latter creations of the people
may find their explanation from the study of dreams.

Finally, I must remind you that you must not be led |
astray by the objection that the occurrence of anxiety- .
dreams (Angsttratime), contradicts our idea of the dream
as a wish-fulfillment. Apart from the consideration that
anxiet-dreams also require interpretation before judg-
ment can be passed on them, one can say quite generally
that the anxiety does not depend in such a simple way on
the dream content as one might suppose without more
knowledge of the facts, and more attention to the condi-
tions of neurotic anxietv. Anxiety is one of the ways in
which the ego relieves itself of repressed wishes which
have become too strong, and so is easy to explain in the
dream, if the dream has gone too far towards the fulfilling
pf the objectionable wish.

You see that the investigation of dreams was justified
by the conclusions which it has given us concerning things

: | ae |
ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT 51

otherwise hard to understand. But we came to it in con-
nection with the psychoanalytic treatment of neurotics.
From what has been said you can easily understand how
the interpretation of dreams, if it is not made too difficult
by the resistance of the patient, can lead to a knowledge
of the patient’s concealed and repressed wishes and the
complexes which he is nourishing. I may now pass to that
group of everyday mental phenomena whose study. has
become a technical help for psychoanalysis.

These are the bungling of acts (Fehlhandlungen) among
normal men as well as among neurotics, to which no sig-
nificance is ordinarily attached; the forgetting of things
which one is supposed to know and at other times really
does know (for example the temporary forgetting of
proper names); mistakes in speaking (Versprechen),
which occur so frequently; analogous mistakes in writing
(Verschreiben) and in.reading (Verlesen), the automatic
execution of purposive acts in wrong situations (Ver:
greifen) and the loss or breaking of objects, etc. These
are trifles, for which no one has ever sought a psycho-
logical determination, which have passed unchallenged as
chance experiences, as consequences of absent-mindedness,
inattention and similar conditions. Here, too, are included
the acts and gestures executed without being noticed by the
subject, to say nothing of the fact that he attaches no
psychic importance to them; as playing and trifling with
objects, humming melodies, handling one’s person and
clothing and the like.”

These little things, the bungling of acts, like the symp-
tomatic and chance acts (Symptom- und Zufallshandlung-
en) are not so entirely without meaning as is generally
supposed by a sort of tactt agreement. They have a mean-
ing, generally easy and sure to interpret from the situation
in which they occur, and it can be demonstrated that they
either express impulses and purposes which are repressed,

12 Zur Psychopathologie des Alltagslebens, 3d ed. S. Karger,
Berlin, 1910.

82 AN OUTLINE OF PSYCHOANALYSIS

hidden if possible from the consciousness of the individual,
or that they spring from exactly the same sort of repressed
wishes and complexes which we have learned to know
already as the creators of symptoms and dreams.

It follows that they deserve the rank of symptoms, and
their observation, like that of dreams, can lead to the dis-
covery of the hidden complexes of the psychic life. With
their help one will usually betray the most intimate of his
secrets. If these occur so easily and commonly among
people in health, with whom repression has on the whole
succeeded fairly well, this is due to their insignificance
and their inconspicuous nature. But they can lay claim to
high theoretic value, for they prove the existence of re-
pression and surrogate creations even under the conditions
of health. You have already noticed that the psychoana-
lyst is distinguished by an especially strong belief in the
determination of the psychic life. For him there is in the
expressions of the psyche nothing trifling, nothing arbi-
trary and lawless, he expects everywhere a widespread
motivation, where customarily such claims are not made;
more than that, he is even prepared to find a manifold
motivation of these psychic expressions, while cur sup-
posedly inborn causal need is satisfied with a single psychic
cause.

Now keeping in mind the means which we possess for
the discovery of the hidden, forgotten, repressed things in
the soul life: the study of the irruptive ideas called up by
free association, the patient’s dreams, and his bungled and
symptomatic acts; and adding to these the evaluation of
other phenomena which emerge during the psychoanalytic
treatment, on which I shall later make a few remarks under
the heading of “transfer” (Uebertragung), you will come
with me to the conclusion that our technique is already
sufficiently efficacious for the solution of the problem of
how to introduce the pathogenic psychic material into con-
sciousness, and so to do away with the suffering brought
on by the creation of surrogate symptoms.

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT 653

The fact that by such therapeutic endeavors our knowl.
edge of the mental life of the normal and the abnormal
is widened and deepened, can of course only be regarded
as an especial attraction and superiority of this method.

I do not know whether you have gained the impression
that the technique through whose arsenal I have led you is
- a peculiarly difficult one. I consider that on the contrary,
for one who has mastered it, it is quite adapted for use.
But so much is sure, that it is not obvious, that it must be
learned no less than the histological or the surgical tech.
nique.

You may be surprised to learn that in Europe we havi
heard very frequently judgments passed on psychoanalysis
by persons who knew nothing of its technique and had
never practised it, but who demanded scornfully that we
show the correctness of our results. There are among
these people some who are not in other things unacquainted
with scientific methods of thought, who for example would
not reject the result of a microscopical research because it
cannot be confirmed with the naked eye in anatomical prep-
arations, and who would not pass judgment until they had
used the microscope. But in matters of psychoanalysis
circumstances are really more unfavorable for gaining
recognition. Psychoanalysis will bring the repressed in
“mental life to conscious acknowledgment, and every one
who judges it is himself a man who has such repressions,
perhaps maintained only with difficulty. It will conse.
quently call forth the same resistances from him as from
the patient, and this resistance can easily succeed in dis-
guising itself as intellectual rejection, and bring forward
arguments similar to those from which we protect our
patients by the basic principles of psychoanalysis. It is
not difficult to substantiate in our opponents the same im-
pairment of intelligence produced by emotivity which we
may observe every day with our patients. The arrogance
of consciousness which for example rejects dreams so
lightly, belongs—quite generally—to the strongest pro-

!

54 . AN OUTLINE OF PSYCHOANALYSIS

tective apparatus which guards us against the breaking

through of the unconscious complexes, and as a result it
is hard to convince people of the reality of the unconscious,
and to teach them anew what their conscious knowledge
contradicts.
Fourth Lecture

Ladies and Gentlemen: At this point you will be ask-
ing what the technique which I have described has taught
us of the nature of the pathogenic complexes and repressed
wishes of neurotics. |

One thing in particular: psychoanalytic investigations
trace back the symptoms of disease with really surprising
regularity to impressions from the sexual lıfe, show us
that the pathogenic wishes are of the nature of erotic
impulse-components (Triebkomponente), and necessitate
the assumption that to disturbances of the erotic sphere
must be ascribed the greatest significance among the etio-
logical factors of the disease. This holds of both sexes.

I know that this assertion will not willingly be credited.
Even those investigators who gladly follow my psycho-
logical labors, are inclined to think that I overestimate the
etiological share of the sexual moments. They ask me why
other mental excitations should not lead to the phenomena
of repression and surrogate-creation which I have de-
scribed. I can give them this answer; that I do not know
why they should not do this, I have no objection to their
doing it, but experience shows that they do not possess
such a significance, and that they merely support the effect
of the sexual moments, without being able to supplant
them. This conclusion was not a theoretical postulate; in
the Studien über Fysterie, published in 1895 with Dr.
Breuer, I did not stand on this ground. I was converted
to it when my experience was richer and had led me deeper
into the nature of the case. Gentlemen, there are among
you some of my closest friends and adherents, who have
traveled to Worcester with me. Ask them, and they will
tell you that they all were at first completely skeptical of