A General Introduction to PsychoanalysisFreud, Sigmund
Science
A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis
Freud, Sigmund
Psychoanalysis
reflection, and not to the original force to which it owed its strength
and which, unimpeachable, lay buried in the unconscious.
Let us now piece together these fragments to see what a short and
impeded psychoanalysis can nevertheless contribute to the understanding
of this case. It is assumed of course that our inquiries were carefully
conducted, a point which I cannot at this place submit to your judgment.
In the first place, the obsession becomes no longer nonsensical nor
incomprehensible, it is full of meaning, well motivated and an integral
part of the patient's emotional experience. Secondly, it is a necessary
reaction toward an unconscious psychological process, revealed in other
ways, and it is to this very circumstance that it owes its obsessional
nature, that is, its resistance to arguments based on logic or fact. In
itself the obsession is something wished for, a kind of consolation.
Finally, the experiences underlying the condition are such as
unmistakably determine an obsession of jealousy and no other. You will
also recognize the part played by the two important analogies in the
analysis of the symptomatic act with reference to its meaning and intent
and also to its relation to an unconscious factor in the situation.
Naturally, we have not yet answered all the questions which may be put
on the basis of this case. Rather the case bristles with further
problems of a kind which we have not yet been able to solve in any way,
and of others which could not be solved because of the disadvantage of
the circumstances under which we were working. For example: why is this
happily married woman open to an infatuation for her son-in-law, and why
does the relief which could have been obtained in other ways come to her
by way of this mirror-image, this projection of her own condition upon
her husband? I trust you will not think that it is idle and wanton to
open such problems. Already we have much material at our disposal for
their possible solution. This woman is in that critical age when her
sexual needs undergo a sudden and unwelcome exaggeration. This might in
itself be sufficient. In addition, her good and faithful mate may for
many years have been lacking in that sufficient sexual capacity which
the well-preserved woman needs for her satisfaction. We have learned by
experience to know that those very men whose faithfulness is thus placed
beyond a doubt are most gentle in their treatment of their wives and
unusually forbearing toward their nervous complaints. Furthermore, the
fact that it was just the young husband of a daughter who became the
object of her abnormal infatuation is by no means insignificant. A
strong erotic attachment to the daughter, which in the last analysis
leads back to the mother's sexual constitution, will often find a way to
live on under such a disguise. May I perhaps remind you in this
connection that the relationship between mother and son-in-law has
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