Psycho-Analysis and the War NeurosesFreud, Sigmund
History
Psycho-Analysis and the War Neuroses
Freud, Sigmund
Psychoanalysis; War neuroses
It is here, therefore, not only a question, as Strümpell considers,
of the production of illnesses on account of an actual gain (pension,
compensation for injury, flight from the front) which are only
secondary illness gains; the primary motive for the illness is the
pleasure itself of remaining in the secure retreat of the childish
situation once so unwillingly left behind. Both these narcissistic and
apprehensive manifestations of illness have their atavistic prototype;
it is even possible that the neurosis often reverts to methods of
reaction which play no part at all in the individual development
(feigning of death by animals, methods of progress and protection of
the young of animals in the ancestral series). It is as though an
over-strong affect could no longer be compensated along normal paths,
but had to regress to previously abandoned but virtually existent
mechanisms of reaction. I do not doubt that many other pathological
reactions will yet be revealed as recapitulations of overcome methods
of adaptation.
As symptoms of the traumatic neuroses which are less appreciated, I
might mention the over-sensitiveness of all the senses (shunning of
light, hyperacusis, extreme ticklishness) and the anxiety dreams. The
real terrors that have been experienced, or things similar to them, are
lived through again and again in these dreams. I am following a hint of
Freud’s when I look upon these terrors and anxiety dreams, as well as
the state of terror by day, as spontaneous attempts of cure on the part
of the patient. They serve to bring piecemeal to conscious abreaction
the shock, which in its totality was intolerable and unintelligible
and was therefore converted into symptoms, and to contribute to the
adjustment of the disturbed equilibrium in the psychical economy.
Ladies and gentlemen, I hope these few remarks of mine may serve as
proof that the psycho-analytical conception discloses points of view
where the rest of neurology leaves us in the lurch.
From the methodical psycho-analysis of many cases we ought to expect
the full explanation of these morbid conditions and perhaps also their
radical cure.
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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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