A General Introduction to PsychoanalysisFreud, Sigmund
Science
A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis
Freud, Sigmund
Psychoanalysis
So much I wanted to tell you about symptom development in the neuroses.
Yes, but do not let me neglect to emphasize this especially: everything
I have said here relates to the symptom development in hysteria. Even in
compulsion neuroses, which retain the same fundamentals, much is found
that is different. The counter-siege directed against the claims of the
instincts, of which we have spoken in connection with hysteria, press to
the fore in compulsion neuroses, and control the clinical picture by
means of so-called "reaction-formations." The same kind and more
far-reaching variations are discoverable among the other neuroses, where
the investigations as to the mechanism of symptom development have in no
way been completed.
Before I leave you today I should like to have your attention for a
while for an aspect of imaginative life which is worthy of the most
general interest. For there is a way back from imagination to reality
and that is--art. The artist is an incipient introvert who is not far
from being a neurotic. He is impelled by too powerful instinctive needs.
He wants to achieve honor, power, riches, fame and the love of women.
But he lacks the means of achieving these satisfactions. So like any
other unsatisfied person, he turns away from reality, and transfers all
his interests, his libido, too, to the elaboration of his imaginary
wishes, all of which might easily point the way to neurosis. A great
many factors must combine to present this termination of his
development; it is well known how often artists especially suffer from a
partial inhibition of their capacities through neurosis. Apparently
their constitutions are strongly endowed with an ability to sublimize
and to shift the suppression determining their conflicts. The artist
finds the way back to reality in this way. He is not the only one who
has a life of imagination. The twilight-realm of phantasy is upheld by
the sanction of humanity and every hungry soul looks here for help and
sympathy. But for those who are not artists, the ability to obtain
satisfaction from imaginative sources is very restricted. Their
relentless suppressions force them to be satisfied with the sparse day
dreams which may become conscious. If one is a real artist he has more
at his disposal. In the first place, he understands how to elaborate his
day dreams so that they lose their essentially personal element, which
would repel strangers, and yield satisfaction to others as well. He also
knows how to disguise them so that they do not easily disclose their
origin in their despised sources. He further possesses the puzzling
ability of molding a specific material into a faithful image of the
creatures of his imagination, and then he is able to attach to this
representation of his unconscious phantasies so much pleasurable
gratification that, for a time at least, it is able to outweigh and
release the suppressions. If he is able to accomplish all this, he makes
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