A General Introduction to PsychoanalysisFreud, Sigmund
Science
A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis
Freud, Sigmund
Psychoanalysis
Having reached this first certainty, our psychiatric interest will have
become aroused. If we cannot do away with a delusion by taking reality
into account, it can hardly have arisen from reality. But the delusion,
what is its origin? There are delusions of the most widely varied
content. Why is it that in our case the content should be jealousy? In
what types of persons are obsessions liable to occur, and, in
particular, obsessions of jealousy? We would like to turn to the
psychiatrist with such questions, but here he leaves us in the lurch.
There is only one of our queries which he heeds. He will examine the
family history of this woman and _perhaps_ will give us the answer: "The
people who develop obsessions are those in whose families similar and
other psychic disturbances have repeatedly occurred." In other words, if
this lady develops an obsession she does so because she was predisposed
to it by reason of her heredity. That is certainly something, but is it
all that we want to know? Is it all that was effective in causing this
breakdown? Shall we be content to assume that it is immaterial,
accidental and inexplicable why the obsession of jealousy develops
rather than any other? And may we also accept this sentence about the
dominance of the influence of heredity in its negative meaning, that is,
that no matter what experiences came to this human being she was
predestined to develop some kind of obsession? You will want to know why
scientific psychiatry will give no further explanation. And I reply, "He
is a rascal who gives more than he owns." The psychiatrist does not know
of any path that leads him further in the explanation of such a case. He
must content himself with the diagnosis and a prognosis which, despite a
wealth of experience, is uncertain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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